The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire
by Coimbra-Bertone
Summary: After the fall of The Eternal Empire, The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire are once again in a Cold War, both in an arms race, both training Force Sensitive after Force Sensitive. One of these Force Sensitives is an amazingly powerful Chiss girl on Korriban, an acolyte who will rise up to become one of the strongest Sith Sorcerers in The Galaxy.
1. The Tomb of Marka Ragnos

The Outlander defeated Vitiate once and for all eleven years ago and took The Eternal Throne, from their she began her own quest to take the galaxy. The Eternal Fleet simultaneously attacked both The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire, these factions, ravaged by seven years of constant war by the time The Eternal Alliance attacked them, had no other choice but to ally together. A year of heavy fighting finally destroyed The Eternal Fleet and Zakuul was bombarded by Harrower-Class Dreadnoughts until the spires were ash: the war was over, The Eternal Empire reduced to fledgling remnants, but at what cost? Ever since the Cold War ended The Empire and The Republic had been in constant warfare, both sides were devastated and next to no morale existed to continue fighting, hence, the truce forged to crush the legacy of Valkorion once and for all has lasted a decade longer as both sides retreat to their respective capitals to rebuild. The Sith Empire has taken the brunt of the war, having lost three Emperors - Vitiate, Acina, and Vowrawn - numerous Dark Councilors, and millions of men, a chance to breathe and rebuild was needed, dozens of systems at the edges of both factions are disillusioned, secondary factions - The Hutt Cartel and Eternal Remnants - seek to take advantage of the present state of the superpowers, and the halls of The Sith Academy on Korriban are filled to the brim with new acolytes, seeking to become Sith or die. Yet another class of acolytes is arriving, including a powerful Chiss from the edge of the galaxy.

Author's Note: This is a Star Wars: The Old Republic fanfiction - yes it's obviously my IP and I completely take credit for all SWTOR material and I seek to extract every last cent I can! (This is sarcasm for those of us who may lack a brain and/or be a lawyer) - anyway, it's hopefully the beginning of a sort of series of SWTOR sequels giving an individual story to each advanced class - this one is The Sith Sorcerer, read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Prologue.

The Valley of The Dark Lords.

Chapter I.

The Tomb of Marka Ragnos.

* * *

Korriban. The red sands covered the hard, barren rock, and beneath that, the ancient tombs of hundreds of Sith - even the ancient warrior Kings of the Sith people themselves, from before the Dark Jedi Ajunta Pall's arrival. Jagged mountains and crumbling ruins rose up from the sand, including six giant ruined statues of Sith, simple and titanic, finally, beyond those behemoths of stone The Valley of The Dark Lords came into view, the ancient ruins in the shadow of the massive pyramidal structure of The Sith Academy. The power of the Dark Side radiated from the ruins, the Tombs of four of the most powerful Sith in history, built upon the ruins of Tombs of ancient Sith Kings. The shuttle inched ever closer to these ruins, yet all of a sudden the shuttle stopped and slowly began to touch down, through the portholes canyon walls surrounded us, as I looked back into the shuttle, the other acolytes looked similarly confused.

There were six of us, one was a Cathar woman, petite yet fierce with twin vibroswords holstered on her back, she hadn't said anything to me and by appearances, was easily the least nervous of us, next to her was a blue-skinned Togruta with white facial tattoos and vibrant red patterns on her white montralls, she was more talkative and gave her name as Pheraza, near the entrance was a pale brown skinned Iridonian Zabrak, dull horns protruding from her bald head, I'm not sure how she ended up here, The Sith enslaved numerous Dathomirian Zabrak, but Iridonian Zabrak were - predominantly - citizens of The Republic. There were two male acolytes as well, a burly and quiet Rattataki, likely a former slave, I could see and feel the fear in his eyes but he wouldn't let it show in his expression or his posture, likely a side-effect of his slavery, the other acolyte was sit on the bench on the same side as me, small and soft-spoken, he was a violet skinned Twi'Lek named Vavense. Finally, there was me, Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe, nothing but a poor Chiss girl from the edge of the galaxy, nothing but a peasant that spent nineteen years with a fledgling family attempting to extract wealth from a barren tundra, yet now I was supposed to use the Force? become a Sith? I couldn't do this.

I had noticed two things about our group however, one: we were all aliens; no Humans and no Sith Purebloods. The second, with the exception of The Cathar, none of us had anything other than plain black hooded Academy robes and Training Lightsabers. Interesting; finally, we touched down and with a heavy hiss, the shuttle door opened, exposing us to the dry heat of Korriban. I spent nineteen years living on a cold tundra, three days in a climate controlled Gage-Class Transport followed by a similarly controlled shuttle ride down to the surface, and now I was in a Force-infused desert.

Nevertheless, I walked out into the heat with the other acolytes, before us stood two women, a Sith Pureblood and a Human Cyborg. The Pureblooded Sith woman wore black and gray hooded robes with red geometric outline patterns, underneath her hood, blood red pupils glowed from yellowed eyes surrounded by her harsh bony red face, three protrusions on each of her cheeks surrounded her mouth, filled with her sharp teeth. The Cyborg next to her was a tan-skinned woman with a deeply burned face, particularly on the left side but extending over both of her eyes, her eyes themselves were covered with black lenses attached to the cybernetics on the side of her face, I'm assuming her natural sight was heavily damaged by whatever injuries her face received; she wore black robes as well, covered with silver armor in several areas, her robes lacked a hood, instead her black hair was tightly and professionally tied back. These two must have been our Overseers.

"Acolytes," began the Pureblood Overseer "I am Overseer Vernache, this is Assistant Overseer Calenph; welcome to hell, every single one of you will die. The beasts will tear you apart and feast on your entrails, if you survive that, then possessed acolytes and troopers will kill you in cold blood - assuming the spirits of the Dark Lords don't possess you first. The last few survivors will face millennia old droids will gun you down just as they have to your pathetic predecessors for centuries. Only the strong survive Korriban and none of you wretch are strong."

"It is not enough to be the last survivor, you must pass all your trials regardless, this is not a selection by default." The Assistant Overseer added.

"Indeed, your trials have been meticulously decided upon by myself and by your commissioner, the commissioner requested an alien apprentice, unfortunate, no alien will ever be as strong as a Pureblooded Sith in the Force, your commissioner has doomed you to fail, these are not trials for you wretch, they are trials to forge the future elites of The Sith Empire." Vernache clearly wanted to demoralize us from the very beginning "Now, each of you will get an individual trial, we cannot have a parasitic leach surviving off of the work of greater acolytes, I will call your name, you will receive your trial, and you will complete your trials, if any of you manage to survive The Lower Wilds and The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, you will earn access to The Valley of The Dark Lords itself - the evaluation process for acolytes has changed so that our holiest site isn't molested by the weak."

"Seidoa Avarn." The Cathar went up first, Vernache towered more than a foot over her, but the girl didn't flinch, she was determined to become Sith - I was determined too, but I was determined to survive, not necessarily to become Sith, though it seems at this point survival meant becoming Sith - I don't know if I could beat her to the one surviving position. Soon enough, she left and walked out into the canyon for her Trial.

"Vavense Chaphyd." The Twi'Lek was called up next, he was taller and burlier than Seidoa, but he was still not as tall as Vernache, he was nervous too and it showed, I could almost feel Calenph laughing at him - he wouldn't survive.

"Jzaan Ephar." The Rattataki was next, he was taller than Vernache and kept his stone-faced expression, but if I could feel his fear, Vernache and Calenph definitely could, nevertheless, he didn't flinch during the brief conversation, nor did he say a word in response, giving nothing more than the smallest of nods in response - I couldn't tell how far he'd get, though I'd imagine he would at least survive this trial.

"Dayo-Kaza Herrenph." The Iridonian-Zabrak came up next alphabetically, once again shorter than Vernache, she kept a calm expression, not particularly determined nor exposing that she's nervous, she was more talkative than Jzaan and quickly walked off - again, hard to tell her fate.

"Pheraza Sa'avaa." The last acolyte before me was the Togruta, her horns came up to the top of Vernache's head, but on eye-level, she was much shorter, closer to Seidoa's size than Dayo-Kaza, who was the second tallest. She talked quickly and nervously, none of us were particularly confident, again with the possible exception of Seidoa. She got her trial and left, I didn't have time to decide if she would survive or not because it was my time now.

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," I walked up to Vernache, I was shorter than her but roughly the same height as Calenph "You will enter the deepest sanctums of The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, newly excavated and you will copy down the six tenants of The Sith Code, left so that the spirits of Marko Ragnos and his disciples will never forget their doctrine, you will never forget it either, copy it down exactly - do not fail me. If you survive, I will be waiting in my office within The Sith Academy."

"Understood," I bowed my head and Vernache walked past me into the shuttle, Calenph bumped into me before walking off.

"Careful acolyte, only the strongest survive Korriban, only the most willing...you are neither." She whispered into my ear before shoving past me into the shuttle, pushing a Datapad into my arms, presumably this was where I was supposed to copy down the Code. I slid the Datapad into my upper robe, given I wasn't talking to the Overseers anymore, I pulled my hood up over my head, we were all given a plain set of black robes, no armor, no elegant designs, just simple black hooded robes with a waistcord. I walked deeper into the canyon as the shuttle took off behind me, I was now left alone in this canyon tasked with completing this Trial - the only alternative was death. The only alternative on Korriban was death, the only way to survive is to become Sith, escape is hopeless - I could see the massive turbolaser cannons at the top of the far wall of the canyon, more than capable of destroying any escape ship.

A distinctive roar brought my attention back down to canyon floor, ahead of me were several Tukata, spiky quadrupedal Dark Side beasts that could easily tear acolytes apart. I wasn't trained to fight with sword, this Training Lightsaber wouldn't be enough with my lack of skill, but I knew two things that could help me here, one: I was here on Korriban as an acolyte, therefore I had the Force, I never used it, I never knew I could, but if I'm here, I must be able to use the Force, two: The Sith are known for blasting lightning from their fingertips, given I had the Force, I should be able to do this. I lifted my dominant left hand at the largest Tukata, I thought about blasting lightning, I thought about hitting that beast, I thought about the lightning flowing through me and out of my fingertips to electrocute the monster, and all of a sudden, I felt power surging through me, I watched the purple lightning leave my hand and electrocute the Tukata, I watched it squirm and scream in pain, until finally, the beast died. The three smaller Tukata were now fully aware of me, one fled, the other two ran at me, I gave one a quick shock and it fell to the sandy ground with a thud, for the other, I blew it away with my right hand with the power of my lightning - I had no idea I could do this, but I did, this was why I was on Korriban. I had the power, but did I have the strength to truly use it? Was Calenph right about me?

In any case, I continued through the canyon, curving through the corpses of Tukata left by the other acolytes, walking until eventually, mounted on the canyon wall, an outpost came into view, filled with beast cages and elevated platforms, including a shuttle pad - this would likely be my way to The Valley of The Dark Lords itself. Turning to the right of the outpost, the canyon opened up to a wide valley, filled with ancient ruins of the truly massive Tomb of Marka Ragnos, staircases, pillars, smaller Tombs built into the sides of the Tomb, and the crumbled remains of terraces, The Sith clung to these ancient ruins, not to rebuild them but to plunder as much knowledge and power as they possibly could, this was quite telling of the religion as a whole, prioritizing individual power and short term gain over the long term viability of our civilization - these Sith were the remains of Naga Sadow's Empire, Naga Sadow, who rose to fill the void left by Marka Ragnos, yet here before me stood the plundered and crumbled ruins of Marka Ragnos' Tomb, battered by sandstorms, looters, and careless Sith for centuries. Yet here I was, a mere acolyte sent to a place The Sith should treat as a holy ground - but I wouldn't dare to speak this grievance out aloud to the Overseers or to any Sith, they wouldn't listen, they would tear me apart.

I saw troopers in the distance, black and red armored Sith soldiers, patrolling the grounds, but something felt very wrong, I focused on one of them and wondered what he could've been thinking, what his purpose was - shockingly, I heard something, I could reach in and hear his thoughts. I reached deeper, I didn't realize at the time but I was pushing into his mind, hearing what he heard, and what I heard was crazed whispers in Sith tongues, harsh and shrill voices constantly reverberating through his brain - his mind was possessed, destroyed by Sith spirits. The ancient Sith want to guard their own Tombs, protect their dead after all this desecration, unfortunately, I had no choice, I had to enter that Tomb and complete my trial to survive, which meant that I would need to fight these possessed soldiers. I grabbed my Training Lightsaber in my left hand and reached out for The Force, I had to kill soldiers who had done nothing against me, but there was one consolation: I heard what went through that soldier's head constantly, at least I could free them of the insanity and the constant hissing.

I walked towards the Tomb, down a half-buried staircase into a small depression on the ground, some of the troopers noticed me and began shooting, I rose my right hand and again lightning flew from my fingertips, incapacitating one and finally electrocuting him dead, I gave another a quick, hard shock and Force Pushed the third away and down to the ground. I grabbed my Training Lightsaber with both hands and cut down the soldier I shocked earlier, with a quick burst of Force Lightning I finished off the soldier I blew away. I had just killed three men, electrocuted them, murdered them, one I even physically finished off with my sword - I didn't like that, I didn't like that I had to kill them at all, but they were crazed, possessed, and irrational, there was nothing I could do to avoid this confrontation, but if I had to confront sentient beings, if I had to kill people, I wanted it as impersonal as possible; I would use The Force whenever possible, assuming I lived long enough to ever be in this situation again.

The Overseers said that our Trials weren't going to be eased by others, yet nevertheless, at least here outside of The Tomb, most of the possessed guards were already dead, many cut down brutally, murdered viciously - more so that even the three I dealt with - but I would imagine things would be more difficult within The Tomb itself, especially given that Vernache mentioned I would be going very deep into this Tomb - this massive Tomb, stretching from canyon wall to canyon wall and who knows how deep the full extent is, clearly The Sith were still busy excavating it, - I was unsure if any other acolyte was going anywhere near as deep as I was. I entered The Tomb of Marka Ragnos I felt cold, not literally - even though it was much cooler within the dark corridors than it was outside in the oppressive Korriban sun - rather I felt an evil presence, dark and cold, this was The Dark Side, immortalized here, the power of ancient Sith, including Marka Ragnos himself, so powerful he sustained himself for centuries. If I survived, if I became a Sith, if I fell to The Dark Side like these Trials were clearly meant to, if I learned how to cultivate my raw power into something refined, something powerful, something drawing on my own passions, I might give off this coldness too one day.

I did not want to. I didn't want to be cruel, I didn't want to sacrifice compassion and friendship for power, I wanted to be good, even if I survived this and had to become a Sith.

I walked through The Tomb, deeper, past the corpses of soldiers, past acolytes, and excavators - slaves really, the Empire still relied predominantly on the labor of enslaved aliens, even though there has evidently been strides towards tolerance since the early losses against The Republic - however, in actuality, not much has changed, as evident in how Overseer Vernache addressed us. I took a right down the stairs, old and cracked, poorly lit, decayed, exactly the problem I mentioned before about The Sith - no preservation, no reconstruction, nothing, only extraction of wealth and power. I walked into a large central antechamber and directly ahead of me was a newly excavated section surrounded by scaffolding and ceiling mounted lights - this was my path, the trails of corpses to the left and right meant my fellow acolytes, my rivals I suppose, went off in other directions, I was on my own now - I walked past the destroyed doorway down another staircase, this one much less worn out, though still cracked and ancient. At the bottom of the stairs was another antechamber, this one filled with excavation equipment, troops acting as security, and the slaves themselves, though I could feel the rasps and the hisses again.

Between the soldiers and slaves, there were twelve possessed hostiles in the antechamber, separated roughly in half by a large drilling machine, too many to fight the way I had before, I wasn't any good with a sword and the soldiers had rifles and vibroswords, and somehow the slaves got the hold of blaster pistols - perhaps the soldiers' sidearms, given to their possessed fellows. I rose both my hands, aimed towards the middle of each group, I imagined every single one of them being electrocuted, my lightning hitting all twelve of them, quick and violent shocks to each of them - and then I felt the power flowing through my again, from my core through both my arms and finally to my fingertips, I took a deep breathe and unleashed, twin masses of purple lightning erupted from my hands and hit the soldiers and slaves, shrill screams and death cries just barely audible under the electric crackling. I could only imagine what horror these poor souls would see if they weren't possessed - a dark robes figure electrocuting them, a figure with featureless red eyes, a trademark Chiss characteristic, we completely lacked pupils - finally, I heard the last of them fall to the ground with heavy thuds. I fell backwards onto the stairs, panting, I was powerful, that much was clear, but doing things like that were draining, I exhausted myself.

A moment later, I stood up and made my way down the rest of the stairs, each of the three rooms contained a massive stone tablet with ancient Sith hieroglyphs carved into them, each of them must have had two tenants, I went to the one to the left first, past the corpses I left, I couldn't bear to look at them, I just kept walking on my shaky legs - I was frightened, not of more of these possessed soldiers and slaves, but of myself, I just killed twelve people through no fault of their own, they were possessed, without the spirits these would be my new countrymen, I was now an Imperial, as were these soldiers, and I sympathized with the slaves, they were taken from their homeworlds to further the Imperial war machine, the same thing happened to me, except rather than being taken for slave labor, I was taken being of my Force prowess, illegally too, I was a Chiss citizen! The chamber to the left was empty, it was safe, so I kneeled down and copied the first tenant down.

 _Peace is a lie, there is only Passion_ ,

Typical of The Sith, their whole philosophy is war, following only their base instincts, their passions, The Empire wasn't logical, it wasn't balanced - they were violent, greedy, and hateful. Granted, I would appreciate a more sensible and toned-down variant of the Code, I liked the idea of the line in comparison to Jedi philosophy, the Jedi were forced to abandon their emotions, not just the negative ones such as anger and lust, but positive ones like compassion and love, ideally, I would like to draw on my love, on my compassion to do good, to help people, to be a good person; instead, here I was, on Korriban, learning The Sith Code, learning to be cruel and to wage war, merciless and brutal war, often against the innocent, simply to benefit yourself. The Jedi were wrong because they abandoned love and compassion out of fear of the Dark Side, The Sith were wrong because they abandoned love and compassion to embrace the Dark Side, there has to be some kind of middle ground, that is what I wanted to achieve.

 _Through Passion, I gain Strength,_

The next tenant, written directly below, was a more basic element of Sith philosophy, they drew on their raw emotions to be stronger in The Force, similar to how an enraged peasant may defeat a better armed guard by using erratic, angry blows, however this too wasn't true, as a trained guard could easily see the careless weaknesses left by an opponent using the angry, erratic blows. These tactics weren't sustainable, The Sith could not truly beat stronger opponents just by tapping into their anger, they needed something more tangible, whether it be raw power or better training, yes, I could see how raw emotional power can give an edge in combat, but it is only that, and edge, it shouldn't be a cornerstone of Sith philosophy. I stood up, but my Datapad away again and walked to the next chamber, the center one opposite of the stairs I walked down, once again I kneeled in front of the stone tablet.

 _Through Strength, I gain Power_ ,

Power for The Sith usually came in one of two ways, both of which tied directly to strength - or more precisely, strength and cunning - the first method, less sustainable yet at the same time, more traditional was to betray your Master, overthrow them and take their power base. The second way, harder, but more accepted, especially by the current Empire, which, despite all it's shortcomings, was trying to avoid the usurpation that severely disadvantaged The Sith against The Jedi - the Jedi were unified, The Sith feared each other just as much as they feared The Jedi - but the second method, the more modern method of gaining rank, gaining power among The Sith was to earn a promotion in battle, prove yourself against The Sith's enemies - usually the Jedi and The Republic - until it becomes clear to your superiors that you deserve more power. I agreed with the second method of gaining power, a Sith doesn't have to be strong to overthrow their master, Darth Malak overthrew Darth Revan not with lightsabers and the Force, but with timing and turbolasers, strength and cunning must be proven, The Sith trust too much in opportunistic apprentices filling the void of more capable Masters.

 _Through Power, I gain Victory_ ,

This tenant didn't necessarily mean victory in battle, rather I think this referred to winning an intrapersonal battle, especially when concerning the second method of gaining rank among The Sith. When you prove yourself in the field or against your own Master, you don't just prove yourself to your rivals, to your critics, but also to yourself, Sith philosophy is centered around furthering yourself - often at the expense of others - regardless of the cost, so doing so must be a massive accomplishment to The Sith in question proving him or herself. Though, my musings could be wrong, I was by no means an expert on Sith philosophy, perhaps the tenant is merely referring to literal power and literal victory, but I didn't want to think that, I wanted to believe there was a way to be a Sith that wasn't cruel and belligerent, rather I wanted to reach into my emotions, reach into The Dark Side to do good. I hoped that this was possible. Once more, I rose from the floor, brushed the old sandy dust from my lower robe, and walked out of the room back into the main antechamber into the third and final room to copy down the final two tenants of The Sith Code from the final tablet. I kneeled out and took out my Datapad - I had most of the Code written down already, but I didn't write down my notes; I had a feeling that the Overseers wouldn't be overtly sympathetic towards my views on their philosophy.

 _Through Victory, my chains are broken!_

This line was rather interesting, I think it supported my theory on the victory being mental, in which case the broken chains would be limitations, self-doubt and past failures, as The Sith will have finally succeeded, the past didn't matter anymore, only the future. I wonder what my chains were, I definitely had self-doubt, especially given my inexperience with The Force, I suppose that, from a Sith perspective, my aversion to murder would be seen as one of my chains, and, adding onto the Sith perspective, they'd probably see this as one of my chains - my own independent philosophy, which I'm sure they'd say is stained by The Light Side, a reflection of my other chains. Personally however, I felt that if I could survive, learn more in the Force, and harness my natural ability - however much I have, that was very uncertain - I could make something of myself without reaching into The Dark Side - that would be my goal, all my musings pointed here, but could I do it? Could I even survive Korriban? _I_ _can_ , I know I can, I electrocuted those twelve possessed troops, six of them per hand as an untrained acolyte, acting only off of instinct and what I've seen in holovids about Force users, I could only imagine what I'll be able to do in the future - and that brought me to the final tenant.

 _The Force shall set me free_.

The Force, not exclusively The Dark Side, nor exclusively The Light Side, rather The Force, the confirmation for my point of view was right there, right in front of me, nowhere in The Sith Code did it say I have to use The Dark Side, the implication that I'm supposed to is heavy, but is that from The Code itself or am I mentally placing that implication on The Code due to my knowledge of The Sith's reputation? I wasn't sure, but this was exciting, I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel - this tunnel of being forced to be an acolyte, this tunnel of potentially becoming Sith - I had a purpose now, a reason to survive and to complete my trials, maybe, just maybe, the light within me would be an example for others. As for the rest of the tenant, The Force shall set me free, this tied into the line about victory breaking my shackles...or did it? Perhaps this referred to Death, the legends say that powerful Force users can manifest themselves as apparitions, as Ghosts after death, these Force Ghosts had all the power of their former self and then some, I wasn't sure which of these was exactly true, same with the earlier lines, but I knew what my beliefs on all this were, and I knew what I was going to do. I rose up from the cold stone and put my Datapad away, I accomplished something today, evidently small, but this could shape the rest of my life, possibly The Sith as a whole, potentially even the galaxy.

* * *

Well, that's it, there's chapter one! I hope you enjoyed!


	2. The Sith Academy

I hope you enjoyed chapter one, here's chapter two! Enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Prologue.

The Valley of The Dark Lords.

Chapter II.

The Sith Academy.

* * *

I left The Tomb of Marka Ragnos and returned to the surface, raising my hood up again as the sun beamed down on me - I was born on a cold, distant, tundra world, and Korriban was about as different from that world as possible. Nevertheless, I was one step closer to either leaving Korriban a Sith or leaving the land of the living; I had The Sith Code recorded - Peace is a lie, there is only Passion, through Passion I gain Strength, through Strength, I gain Power, though Power, I gain Victory, through Victory, my chains are broken! The Force shall set me free - and I was now on my way to the outpost I saw at the other end of the canyon. I would take a shuttle from the outpost up to The Valley of The Dark Lords and report to Overseer Vernache and Assistant Overseer Calenph at The Sith Academy. I wonder what became of the others, I would wager that Jzaan, Dayo-Kaza, and Pheraza lived, I would be shocked if Seidoa hadn't given her weapon advantage and confidence, and while he was the only person to really talk to me, I doubted that Vavense survived, he was out of his element - he wasn't hardened enough, wiling enough for Korriban; though granted, neither was I, however it was quickly becoming evident that I was strong in the Force, perhaps even an advantage over my fellow acolytes.

I walked through the canyon, looking up above at the capital ships above - three Harrower-Class Dreadnoughts, formerly the largest Imperial vessel, however now the Empress-Class Super Dreadnought was receiving limited deployment on border territories, amongst many other preparations for war, which The Sith - and granted much of The Republic - saw as inevitable - they were a mighty sight against the yellow-orange sky above. I felt accomplished with myself, but I knew I was far from done, Assistant Overseer Calenph made it clear that not only would I need to survive, but I would need to complete all the Trials that I'm assigned, this was good, more in line with the second way of gaining power in my philosophy - earn power, not take it from someone greater than yourself - I couldn't just be the last acolyte alive, I would need to be the acolyte to fully prove myself.

I reached the outpost and rode the elevator platform up to the catwalks above, the caged Tukata snarling and growling at me and everyone else in their sight, raw, savage beasts of the Dark Side. I turned on the catwalk and looked out to The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, looked down at the ruins below - crumbled, destroyed, fallen - but perhaps that's exactly how The Sith want it to be, they don't want to preserve the past or learn from it, they want to take power from the past and leave the rest to die; and they were very good at it. It was quickly becoming evident that The Sith's philosophy didn't mesh with my way of thinking, but that's not necessarily a weakness for me, no, no, it could be an advantage even, it's unexpected, perhaps even jarring to see an unconventional Sith, assuming I managed to keep the momentum of this one success through the rest of my trials - I had no idea what those were but I would very much imagine the trials would only get more difficult from here, weed out the weak and let the strong develop their craft, hone their skills, until they're ready to do what the other acolytes would've thought impossible and become Sith.

I boarded the black, gray, and red airspeeder and chose The Academy as my destination, and watched as I took off and finally flew up and over the canyon walls and saw The Valley of The Dark Lords, they dug out lower to reveal a central Tomb, the others were built into the side walls - four entrances, two open, two closed, it was clear that the central Tomb extended out to the right and was likely simply an underground wing of a Tomb built into the top left corner of The Valley when looking down at a bird's eye view. As for the final door, it was in the top right, there were four Tombs in The Valley of The Dark Lords...was The Tomb of Marka Ragnos so massive that it extended up from the canyon to this entrance? and how far back did it go? how far underground? These Tombs were massive, multipart structures with wings from various different eras: fascinating. I flew over the landing dock that I believed we would land on, the implication being that before the change of acolytes starting their trials in The Lower Wilds and The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, the acolytes started out here, departing and being thrust directly to their trial in the central Tomb. Directly ahead, towering for the heavens, was The Sith Academy itself, a massive metal dark gray pyramid radiating the power of The Dark Side, not necessarily more than The Tombs, but it was a different darkness, distinctive and modern; this was young, new, virgin power of The Dark Side, the untapped potential of hundreds of acolytes, of dozens of Overseers, of the Masters, and of The Dark Council themselves, who held their meetings within. This was not the ancient Force power of the Dark Lords, this was the power of the new Dark Lords.

The airspeeder landed on a landing pad just to the right of The Academy stairs, I turned and walked down the few steps from the pad onto the sand again, the rear entrance to the central Tomb lined up directly with The Sith Academy's stairs, a marketplace was just to the left of the stairs and all around The Academy were young acolytes dressed in the same black robes as myself, red armored Sith troopers patrolled the grounds, and at the base of the stairs stood two red armored Dark Honor guards armed with lightsaber pikes, they were perfectly still yet clearly vigilant, if the guards failed they were the next line of defense for The Academy and seemingly the last exterior defense. I walked past them and up the stairs, I was a mere acolyte yet both Dark Honor guards bowed for me as I passed them, I continued upwards, the hot Korriban sun burning on my black robes, so dark they absorbed every bit of sunlight and reflected none, I'm sure this was intentional by The Sith, make the acolytes as uncomfortable as possible, give them no luxury, barely enough to sustain ourselves under the guise of building us up and making us strong, but really it was just the Overseers' cruelty at work.

I walked through the vestibule, made to resemble the Tombs with the massive statues of ancient Sith Warriors next to the massive red banners emblazoned with the Empire's insignia in white, on the other side of the vestibule was a short corridor, again filled with Dark Honor guards who again bowed for me, past them was the main hall of The Sith Academy, at the center was a pyramidal tower of Sith hieroglyphs topped by a glowing red Holocron, on either side were staircases leading to the second floor, the same red and white banners were hung wherever possible and my fellow acolytes were everywhere, as were Overseers, new Sith, old Sith, Sith Masters, and everyone in between, for a place so Dark and so powerful it was full of life - The Empire was definitely preparing for war with this many acolytes, all under the same conditions as me; The Sith were building an army to unleash upon The Republic and their Jedi protectors - it was as awe inspiring as it was frightening, so much raw, untrained power in such a small space...surely ii will backfire sooner than later? In any case, I took the staircase to the right and went to Overseer Vernache's office on the right side of the second floor.

Once more, the short entrance hallway was lined with Sith statues - I was sensing a theme here - before opening up to a large room with a wide, elevated desk in front of an elaborate, throne-like chair, on both sides of the chair were the red Sith banners. Overseer Vernache, red-skinned and harsh faced sat in the chair, Assistant Overseer stood just to her right, standing tall and proud - very official, very loyal, but I could see in her disposition - and indeed feel through The Force - that she wanted more, she was cruel, greedy, and I knew from her comment before my trial that she certainly didn't like me. I lined up amongst the other acolytes, Seidoa the Cathar was here, as were Dayo-Kaza the Iridonian Zabrak, Jzaan the Rattataki, and Pheraza the Togruta, Vavense wasn't here, either he unfortunately died as I had predicted or he was still desperately trying to complete the trial - I hoped the latter, but I doubted him from the very beginning and that still hasn't changed. I pulled my Datapad out of my robe and set it to display The Sith Code on screen for when I hand it to the Overseers, but I made no move to hand it over yet, Vernache was at her desk, silently busy on something I could've see at my angle nor beyond the central holoprojector, I'm certain she'll rise and acknowledge us at her own discretion. Sure enough, she eventually looked up at us, and rose from her chair.

"You five survived, surprising," she walked out from behind the desk, down the few steps, and walked up center to address us again "Present proof of your trials to myself - those with insufficient proof or have otherwise unsatisfied me shall face fatal consequences." Vernache went to us one by one from right to left as I nervously stood at the end once again, I could feel the burning gaze of Assistant Overseer Calenph's cybernetic lenses, judging me as well as the others, I could feel her cruel streak rising up again - she wanted to watch one of us die, beneath her cybernetics she was a Human and Vernache was a Pureblood, these two species were the only two to live in The Sith Empire without persecution or even discrimination, and they often knew their position at the top of social ladder, viewing aliens as scum, even Chiss such as myself, despite our alliance. I looked away from Calenph and back to my right, she passed Seidoa, the Cathar evidently succeeded in her trial, Dayo-Kaza passed as well, and just now, before my eyes Vernache arrived to Jzaan, who stood stone-faced before her yet again, I could feel wave after wave of fear coming off of him.

"The schematic is incomplete," Vernache turned directly to him, hateful red and yellow eyes staring at the former slave "Explain yourself,"

"This was all I could find." was his only defense, clipped tone and hardened disposition, however, it was all for naught, Vernache's left hand gripped a curved-hilt lightsaber and a yellow blade ignited, she rose it above her shoulder and swung down across his chest, his robes burned away as a thick, cauterized scar went through his alabaster colored chest, his body fell to the cold metal ground, dead.

"The rest of you scum best have not failed." Vernache growled, only four of us remained now and who knows if either Pheraza or I will have passed our trials, I was sure I've done what I required, though it seems so did Jzaan. The Overseer observed Pheraza's Datapad next, roughly grabbing it from her and quickly reading it before deeming it satisfactory, shoving it back into Pheraza's hands, it was my time now.

"Put the Datapad away," she told me, I obliged "Good, now, recite The Sith Code for us," she crossed her arms and waiting, red pupils looking down on me.

"Peace is a Lie, there is only Passion, through Passion, I gain Strength, through Strength, I gain Power, through Power, I gain Victory, through Victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free." I spoke softly but clearly, I was scared but I did my best to stay composed and hoped it would be enough. The fact that Vernache was forcing me to speak after seeing her murder someone in cold blood a mere few feet away from me only added to my nerves, if I made a small mistake like whatever was wrong with the schematics Jzaan had to deliver, I would join him on the floor, but I memorized it well, mainly due to my reflection on it, my thoughts on each tenant ringing through my head as I desperately hoped my voice wouldn't crack or trail off.

"Very well," with that anticlimax, Vernache simply turned and walked off, returning to her chair "Well, well four acolytes remain, so do four trials. Your next trial is The Trial of The Sith Academy, you've gained access to the campus, now prove you deserve it. Seidoa,"

"Yes?" she asked.

"You proudly carry two swords, greater weapons that your peers, show us why - go to training room, learn from the lightsaber duelists, and prove yourself against the other martial acolytes." Vernache ordered.

"Understood," she bowed and left, her trial was definitely tailored to her, though I wondered if all our trials would be like that, perhaps the Commissioner wanted a brute, a warrior, a faster and ferocious front line fighter - if that's true, I was destined to fail.

"Dayo-Kaza," the Iridonian Zabrak stood at attention "My eyes in The Tombs deemed your fighting style sufficient for double-bladed weapons training, go to the trainer, learn to fight with an electrostaff, and report to the training room, prove yourself in the second round against the other weapon specialists, dismissed." This revealed something very interesting, Vernache had eyes in The Tomb, I didn't know if these were droids, spies, or cameras, or even something else entirely, but now I know that no matter what I did in The Valley of The Dark Lords, The Overseers would know about it.

"Pheraza," Vernache continued on to my final rival, the Togruta "You're a difficult one, I can't pin down your advantage, yet you survived and completed your trial, you do favor the training lightsaber over The Force yet you don't seem to directly qualify for any specialization, nor do you have particularly remark swordsmanship skills - go along with Seidoa to the duelist trainers, perhaps if you learn the Lightsaber Forms you can prove yourself useful." Vernache then waved off the alien, finally turning to me, waiting for Pheraza to exit earshot.

"Gl'ickeneose," Vernache began, standing up and again walking up in front of the desk, away from Calenph, who looked down on us with contempt for whatever reason "Your Commissioner wants an apprentice strong in The Force and you're the only one who has thus far qualified, you will go to The Force specialists, train with them, and prove yourself against other Force-attuned acolytes, much like the others will prove themselves in the martial trial. Then you will pass your trials and become Sith, however, the others will not know you're the champion, we will build them up to crush you, tear you down, but you must survive that, you will become the apprentice, do you understand?"

"Yes," I whispered out without even thinking of what I just heard, these were two directly contrasting goals, Vernache wanted me to become the apprentice, but at the same time she was actively building up the others, these were some of the worst aspects of The Sith, ideally, I would one: train to use The Force in combat and then kill the other Force specialized acolytes from the other classes, and then I'd have to survive while other able-bodied acolytes died, with Vernache implying that I would somehow have to sabotage the others - not outright murder, that was banned by The Sith Academy, as explicitly noted as the first entry into each Datapad, fully necessary too, given the reputation by The Sith for murder and betrayal.

"Good, report to The Academy archives, learn from the trainers and holocrons there, then you'll be taken into the room to the right where you and your rivals will fight without your training lightsabers or any physical weapon, only The Force, if you die, the whole class will be a failure, your only option is to go there, learn, and win, now go, and make sure I didn't make a mistake choosing you for this." I nodded and left, exhaling and scared, all the pressure was on me now, Vernache was banking on me and based on Calenph's silent expression, she did not approve in the slightest.

The archives were the next room to the left, right in line with the stairs I climbed up on my way here, once again I walked past the short hallway into the two story room, a single Sith stood in purple robes at the other end of the room, she was human, pale with gaunt eyes and dry, cracked skin - Dark Side corruption, this Sith did nothing to hide it, it seemed almost like she wore it as a badge of honor, showing how deeply she invested in The Dark Side, how powerful she was in The Force that her very morality and abilities had extreme visual consequences. She looked at me with glowing red pupils and yellowed eyes much like Vernache, though her corruption was either greater than Vernache's or she simply chose not to conceal it, unlike my Overseer.

"Hello acolyte," she spoke with a chipper voice, though I cold hear a harsh rasp below "I am Lord Maurn,"

"Hello, My Lord," I bowed my head before her, the customary greeting for a high ranking Imperial, I learned this from living on the Chiss-Imperial frontier, The Sith Empire's territory was formerly considered part of The Unknown Regions, though over the centuries The Sith charted it extensively, including meeting The Chiss Ascendancy nearby in the outermost arms of the galaxy. Chiss space was more diverse than most outsiders realized, while Cheunh was the official language, it was really the language of Copero, the current capital of The Ascendancy, and the other Royal Family worlds, the Chiss people had several languages, I spoke Saallynph'tohn, often considered a peasant language for vulgar and inconsistent use of Chiss grammatical customs, typically, a three part name - which on Copero would be the Chiss's entire name - was used as a given name and another was used as a family name, though that wasn't always the case, my given name was two parts, an abbreviation of the name of the system I was born in, and a Saallynph'tohn name meaning "Inquisitive one" meanwhile, my surname, while technically three parts, consists of the name of the planet my family is from - V'aran'abb - as well as a Saallynph'tohn suffix meaning "farmer," rather accurate given my family's occupation.

"Our agents in The Tomb of Marka Ragnos have been vigilant of you, young one, much raw potential and you already know how to use Force Lightning - speaking of, tell me, how did you know this?" she asked.

"I'm on Korriban for a reason, I have The Force, The Sith are known for using their lightning, I'm no use with a vibrosword, so when I needed to fight wild beasts and crazed acolytes, I did what I hoped I could do, how exactly I did it, I don't know, it seemed almost instinctual." I explained.

"Ah," she smiled "The Force flows through you like a raging river, so much energy, so much power, all waiting to be unleashed!" She cackled as she electrocuted one or the many dummies she had set up in this room, strange given these were the archives, or at least, were, it was clear that at very least they were being momentarily used for training and combat rather than for keeping knowledge "Force Lightning is powerful, dependent, trustworthy, something as simple as that will never fail you, however The Dark Side is much stronger than this, believe me, someone as experienced as I has only skimmed the surface of what is possible for a Sith to do with her power, watch closely acolyte,"

Lord Maurn straightened her stance and turned to several dummies on the far wall away from us, I stood slightly behind at her side, watching every move in her body. She closed her eyes and took a deep breathe, inhaling and exhaling as I began to feel power rushing, not through me, but through her, she raised both her hands and lightning poured out from her fingertips, but she did not shoot straight at the targets. The Force Lightning went upwards before curving down and separating, a massive storm of lightning rained down upon the four targets from above, this would've been more effective against large groups like the twelve possessed soldiers and slaves I faced in The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, though this clearly required immense power, so I'd imagine the end result and fatigue would've been much the same regardless. Maurn gestured for me to try the same, assuring me it was the same in principle as Force Lightning, simply on a larger scale and hitting the target vertically rather than horizontally.

I rose my hands, looking out over my blue fingers to the targets, once again The Force was flowing through me, once again I was channeling the lightning, this time however, I was thinking along the same lines of Lord Maurn's example - rising up and coming down onto the dummies in what would've been a fatal electrocution to them if they were people. I watched the purple Force Lightning launch upwards from my fingertips, ferocious and intense power rising up to the heavens before coming down onto and around the targets in a circular radius, thunderous, crackling Force Lightning burning and scorching the dummies and the floor and the walls - I had more power, it just kept coming and coming to the point where I couldn't even stop it - I had too put too much energy into this, more than I could handle; I wanted to stop it, I tied to move my hands away but I couldn't cut off the blasts, from both hands Force Lightning erupted from my fingertips onto the floor to my sides, I screamed as I finally managed to unleash the rest of my energy and collapsed onto the floor. I was panting on my hands and eyes, breathing deeply, looking and the scorched floor around me, observing my destruction before finally looking up to Lord Maurn, who had at some point wisely moved to the corridor behind me. I rolled over onto my back and scooted to the wall, watching as Lord Maurn walked towards me.

"Know your limits acolyte," Maurn told me as she took a knee "Any opponent would've been dead and liquefied long before you even attempted stop, and if not, it would've become obvious your opponent had some sort of resistance or even immunity - The Force can cause this destruction and also ward against it, it's next to impossible to break a Force Shield unless your power is a magnitude greater than the opponent - what you did was exhausting and unnecessary - now catch your breathe, we have more work to do."

"Thank you," I said as she rose and returned to her position, once I composed myself I joined her.

"Alright then, you can deploy raw power over an area, the next two lessons will focus on precision, the first one is simple, the second builds on it, raise your hand at the dummies when ready." she gave her orders quickly and matter-of-factly, already moving past my incident and the physical damage to the archives - I wonder what The Sith would do about that.

"Alright," I did so, raising my dominant left hand.

"Now, focus; focus on a single bolt, quick, strong, and instant, building it with your mind, shape it with The Force, and unleash it onto one of the targets." I did as Maurn instructed, letting the energy flow through my tired veins but I fired the bolt nevertheless, knocking the dummy back with a Lightning Strike, I watched as Maurn lifted the dummy back up with telekinesis, revealing a massive burn almost directly in the middle of its chest. Once again, I amazed myself, if I could do this simply by learning what to do and what to focus on, what would I be able to do once I actually had the training and the knowledge of advanced techniques, this was only the beginning - if I survived Korriban and became Sith just like Overseer Vernache is forcing me to, I could become something great...perhaps one day I would also have my own Tomb here in The Valley of The Dark Lords.

"Whoa," I exclaimed "I did it,"

"You did," she acknowledged "Now, take it to the next level - your last lesson before you'll fight the others - use the Lightning Strike on one target, but then continue it, strike another target, and another, and another, and another. Create a Lightning Chain and electrocute each one of the targets." I inhaled and exhaled, cleared my mind, and focused, finally I pushed the lightning through me and I repeated my earlier feat, shooting the Lightning Strike from my left hand to the target farthest to the left, then I kept pushing, connecting the targets with other Lightning Strikes, finally I completed the chain and shocked the last target, my lightning went from one end of the room to another - I had done it.

"Good, good - now, into the next room...and into the dueling circle," she ushered me through a short corridor into another room, larger, though sharing the same general floor plan - an open two story room lined with virtual archives on the walls. The other acolytes sat meditating in a circle, there were five of them and they left an open spot - my spot - so I joined the circle and meditated myself, balancing myself and preparing for the fight. These were the best Force users of their particular classes, which I imagine meant that they were at least as skilled as I was, however, there were also six of us, meaning that, if I'm lucky, early on they'll be fighting each other and I'll be able to take advantage. I could sense Lord Maurn's presence, she walked over to the opposite end of the room, looking down on us and directly beyond me was the corridor we entered from.

"Acolytes," Maurn began "We've chosen you six to come here so that one of you may prove yourselves - five of you will die, meanwhile, if our data is accurate, the survivor will be the most powerful Force user in The Sith Academy." Why would The Sith Academy do this? They're killing off five extremely potent acolytes, along with many others in the dueling circle of melee fighters, which had at least two rounds, once more, despite the improvements The Sith have allegedly made in the past few decades, they were still regularly shooting themselves in the foot because of this obsession with building up one single acolyte per class, if The Sith would instead train acolytes to become strong, rather than find whoever is strongest, their ranks would be six times larger based on the current size of classes, there were six of us in this room, assuming they were all from different classes, this meant that this pool started with thirty-six acolytes, five would die here, at least ten in the dueling rounds, not to mention those who already died, by the end of the day, these class combined may be done to fifteen acolytes or so, given I arrived this morning, this meant more than half of my fellow acolytes were killed - suddenly it was shocking that there were so many acolytes outside, I had no idea what their classes were doing but I guess they were shipped in earlier and had a different schedule - perhaps their ranks were already decimated.

"Begin," Maurn said and we all rose, chaos broke out, one acolyte, a human male was electrocuted by a female Sith Pureblood while a Cyborg and a Dathomirian Zabrak were locked in an exchange of Force Lightning - neither could give up without being hit by the combined blast of both their power, another human, a female was panicked, trying to pick her move before being hit by a Lightning Strike from the Pureblood, meanwhile, I took advantage of the two locked in the Lightning battle. I unleashed a Force Storm of purple lightning on them, electrocuting both of them while the Pureblood wisely escaped the radius, this time, unlike when I was training with Maurn, I knew to stop before I was overwhelmed - granted the visual of seeing the two bodies crash to the ground helped. Just as I had stopped the Force Storm, I was knocked to the ground by a blast of red Force Lightning by the Sith Pureblood - it hurt, it hurt a lot, burning me, electrocuting me, I could see flashes of my bones, I was practically getting an X-Ray from her lightning. If I didn't do something quickly, I'd be fried, electrocuted, and dead. I remembered those two being in a Lightning lock, maybe I could reverse the momentum here.

I rose my hands and thought about reversing the momentum and blasting her, I figured I would launch my own purple lightning at her, instead, I ended up redirecting the red Force Lightning back at her, blasting her against the wall, I managed to get up whilst continuing to electrocuting her against the wall, I walked towards her slowly, angry at her for what she did to me, angry because of the pain, I was angry because of the situation I was in, being in The Sith Academy to begin with, desperately trying to find someway of being good. I watched as the Lightning I was shooting at her turned a red violet, and eventually, I was shooting my own purple lightning at her, I watched her scream as the archive wall around her began to flicker with light, flashing dark - then I realized something...I was reaching into The Dark Side, I was reaching into my anger, I was torturing her to death in my anger. Realizing what I had done, I finished off my Force Lightning with a quick, lethal shock to put her out of the misery I put her in - low intensity Force Lightning only brought pain, pain like I had on the ground, but higher intensity lightning, while harder to use, would at least quickly finish off the enemy.

"Why is my Lightning purple and hers was red?" I asked Maurn as she walked over to me.

"The Force manifests itself visually, it's affected by your raw power, your alignment in terms of Light and Dark, and the intensity - it's usually blue, rarely red, but purple I haven't seen before...interesting..." Maurn trailed off into deep thought, I didn't disturb her - I had a lot to think about myself too - but soon enough she acknowledged me again "You've passed your trial acolyte, report to Overseer Vernache, you're far from done, but today, you've proven yourself immensely powerful in The Force, your rivals will fall before you if you're only willing to push ahead, use your power to your advantage and crush your foes - show no mercy."

I simply nodded before bowing again to Lord Maurn and leaving the archives, walking past my destruction, guilty of what I did to the Pureblood and guilty of what The Sith now expected me to do - show no mercy...I couldn't do that. However, today, I evidently proved I could become Sith to Overseer Vernache and Lord Maurn, but I still needed to complete the rest of my trials in order to actually become Sith.

* * *

I hope this chapter's not too rough, but I want to use more Sorcerer abilities - by the way, is Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe a Mary Sue? I hope not, I know it might seem like that, given how much Force stuff has been used already, but I'm telling you, this is only the beginning of what she'll do with The Force, she just needs more time to learn and train! I am open to constructive criticism though, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to explain that particular aspect of our heroine.


	3. The Tomb of Ajunta Pall

I intend to upload weekly on sunday evenings, hopefully by the time you're seeing this I'll have a stable backlog of chapters. I will read and note _all_ reviews, I will try my very best to properly acknowledge them and I'm open to going back to chapters I've already written to adjust for constructive criticism - nothing's set in stone until the very end when it's marked as complete!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Prologue.

The Valley of The Dark Lords.

Chapter III.

The Tomb of Ajunta Pall.

* * *

I was a murderer.

The path to becoming Sith was vile and destructive, I left two rooms destroyed, one of which is filled with corpses - why was the fight in the archives to begin with? I know that the training room is being used by the other acolytes, but surely there was another space to use, there is no good reason for such a place of knowledge to be destroyed; though granted that's the exact same way The Sith treat The Tombs, there's a severe lack of appreciation for the past as history, as knowledge, instead ancient relics are viewed as nothing more than catalysts for your own rise to power. I couldn't blame The Sith entirely though, it's my fault for killing those acolytes, why is my life more important than the lives of any of the five dead acolytes in the other room? I was selfish, I was a selfish, murdering, desperate child, obsessed with my own survival just as much as The Sith are with power, I'm a hypocrite. I don't know how I can ever look at myself again, I couldn't cling to the excuse of them being possessed this time, I wasn't putting them out of their misery, no, they were possessed, they were perfectly fine, they were acolytes of The Sith Academy just the same as I am - I was making them into failures, many of their Overseers probably favored them just as much as Vernache apparently favored me, I didn't deserve to win, I didn't deserve to survive, but I did, now I had to live with that.

I walked into Overseer Vernache's office, Dayo-Kaza was there with a double-bladed vibrosword while Seidoa's twin vibroswords were stained and bloodied - Pheraza's blood, she wasn't here - the Togruta was dead. Assistant Overseer Calenph was in front of us, pacing back and forth while Vernache was at her desk, busying herself again. I took my usual spot as the one at the end of the line, farthest to the left. I looked at Calenph's hip, I had thought her weapon was a lightsaber but looking closer, the hilt had a very strange, wide emitter, I hadn't seen this before, perhaps it formed a large, cleaver like blade, or something else entirely, I didn't know, and I didn't want to find out.

"You three survived your first day of trials," Calenph began "Perhaps you've developed illusions that you were nearly done - hardly, tomorrow, you will have three trials - you will go into the three Tombs of The Valley of The Dark Lords itself, where you will die. As for tonight; the female quarters are the next door to the left, the central door on this side, opposite of the male quarters, your bunk numbers have been assigned to your Datapads, report back here at dawn. Dismissed." Calenph's effort was devoted entirely to demoralizing, in terms of actually telling us about our sleeping arrangements, she told us the bare minimum and left the majority of the information we needed for us to read for ourselves. I quickly made my way out of the group and checked my Datapad, I was assigned Bunk-17, the living arrangements consisted of the bunk and a footlocker, within the footlocker would be a set of basic casual clothes, consisting of an upper robe and a set of tights. These conditions would be satisfactory, it was The Sith Academy, not a luxury yacht, the living conditions were utilitarian - for good reason too, our class was cut in half just on the first day.

I walked into the female quarters and changed into the light gray upper robe and black tights, leaving my hooded black Academy robes, training lightsaber, and Datapad in the footlocker, now more comfortable and finally having a chance to lay down, I rested my head on the pillow and reflected on what's happened thus far. I remembered the grasslands of V'aran'abb, short, dry, pitiful grass growing out of permafrost, frozen snow-capped mountains as far as the eye could see, the planet was cold and largely barren, but it was naturally beautiful - more importantly, it was home. As for Korriban, Korriban was nothing, it was a hot, evil, burning dust bowl, but it was a massive source of Dark Side power, hence, to The Sith, it was valuable, yet not valuable enough to maintain The Tombs - Korriban was _only_ about power, not about history - the word history isn't used anywhere in The Sith Code, but the words power and victory are both used twice, but I've already devoted enough time thinking about Sith Philosophy. What I found much more fascinating in my time on Korriban thus far is The Force, I could already do so much with it, Force Lightning, Shocks, Electrocutions, Lightning Strikes, Chain Lightning, and even Force Storms...I could only imagine what I'd be able to do in the future, if I manage to become Sith and learn under a Dark Lord, a Master, a true Sith Force User rather than an Overseer...the possibilities seem endless, and right now, given what I've done, so does my power!

However, the key now was to survive Korriban, and that meant being ready for anything tomorrow - I'm sure the trials will be crafted specifically to wipe us all out, especially me, given I was meant to be Vernache's young star, which in turn meant that I had to prove myself more than the others, who just had to act as obstacles in my path. I hated to think of Dayo-Kaza and Seidoa as obstacles, I hated the competition The Sith Academy forced on us, but there wasn't any choice here, it was become Sith or die, and I was determined to survive. I had to be ready for tomorrow, so I pulled the sheets over me, adjusted the pillow, and fell asleep, both excited for and dreading whatever was waiting for me in the morning.

Unfortunately, what awaited me in my sleep wasn't much better; my mind inevitably ventured back to what happened earlier today, the battle, the lightning, the murders. I could see the cold, silent, hooded Sith electrocuting the others, mercilessly, robes black as night and lightning vicious and purple, then under the hood, The Sith had featureless red eyes, no pupils, no hope, no light, I saw her get knocked down by a Pureblooded and true Sith, her blue face twisting in agony, lifting her arms - struggling in the lightning - and finally blasting back her opponent, The Chiss's face had an expression of pure hated, teeth barred and nostrils flared, brutally murdering The Sith. In the end, her eyes opened wide, expression turning from anger to horror as she realized what she had done, she finished off The Sith with a quick and final shock, five acolytes dead, two rooms ruined, and one scared little girl in over her head - me. I managed to sleep, but not without constant reminders of what I had done a mere few hours ago.

* * *

The next morning, dressed now in clean robes - visually identical to the ones I wore yesterday, evidently The Academy staff went through our footlockers at night and replaced our robes, given the heat, probability of the robes being torn or damaged, and the sheer amount of physical effort an acolyte will need to go through between fighting, scavenging Tombs, and moving through said heat, this was probably for the benefit of the Overseers as much as the acolytes - I walked into Overseer Vernache's office, followed by Seidoa, we took our usual positions, her on the right, me on the left, both of us looking up at Vernache, sat in her high-backed chair at her elevated desk, Assistant Overseer Calenph stood opposite of me, looking down on us, sneering, just to the left of her superior - to Vernache's right, from her perspective. Just as I began wondering as to where Dayo-Kaza was, she walked in, double-bladed vibrosword on her back - I wondered how she managed to get it into her footlocker, it clearly wasn't collapsible, given she wore it fully extended, despite the possible dangers - and fresh robes, just like the rest of us. We all stood at attention, a Cathar, a Iridonian Zabrak, and a Chiss, all at the mercy of the Overseers.

"Assistant Overseer Calenph," Vernache began, looking at her Cyborg assistant "Administer the trials," Calenph walked down and gave Seidoa and later Dayo-Kaza their trials, given what I did yesterday and my relentless overnight reminders of what happened, I didn't particularly care what their trials were, but from what I did overhear, Seidoa was going into The Tomb of Tulak Horde and Dayo-Kaza into The Tomb of Naga Sadow - Marka Ragnos, Tulak Horde, and Naga Sadow, three - I assumed that my trial would take me to whatever the fourth and final Tomb would be, though I also imagined I'll visit the other two Tombs later on as well, for my next two trials after this one. Calenph finally walked up to me as my fellow acolytes left to complete their respective trials.

"Deep in The Tomb of Ajunta Pall, there is a holocron - perhaps the oldest holocron we know of - but the chamber the holocron was in has already been breached, a looter, or perhaps another acolyte - " Calenph was cut off by Vernache.

"Not an acolyte," Vernache insisted "My eyes have found the holocron and I have not sent an acolyte in, the looter must be either very lucky or very crafty, but not lucky enough, nor crafty enough to avoid all the traps."

"When the looter breached the chamber, the door closed and sealed behind them, open it, crush the looter, take the holocron, and return," Calenph emphasized crushing the looter, yet we didn't even know if whoever triggered the traps was alive or if they were a looter at all, and even if they were a looter, there wasn't necessarily going to be a reason to kill the looter, they may offer the holocron because I let them out to begin with. The Overseers wanted me to commit more and more senseless killing, why? who knows, just another attempt by The Sith Academy to turn acolytes into cruel, sadistic savages living off of anger and bloodlust, just like The Overseers, just like The Sith Lords, and just like The Dark Council governing this whole Empire of brutality. I know that The Sith are far from the only force into the galaxy to commit evil, The Republic have done evil things - including maintaining a prison world, The Chiss Ascendancy has certainly done evil things - they're allies with The Sith after all - but no one really comes close to the sheer amount of evil within and around The Sith Empire.

"This will be a trial of the mind as well as combat, Gl'ickeneose, you must figure out how to open the chamber and you must be able to defeat a looter strong enough to get that deep into a Tomb and stealthy enough to avoid identification or even detection before the traps of The Tomb itself gave away the presence of this looter. Happy hunting acolyte," Vernache sent me off, once again into The Tombs, into an area I know is trapped to open an ancient door with the expectation of killing someone who hasn't done a single thing to wrong me other than coincidently being after the same holocron that I'm now chasing.

"Understood," yet I bowed my head to The Overseers and walked off like an obedient little acolyte - I was a coward committing murders and atrocities because it's the easy way out, why in the world would my life be worth more than any of the possessed slaves and soldiers, the other acolytes, or even this one looter in The Tomb of Ajunta Pall who I've never seen, who knows nothing of who I am, and has no reason to harm me - but I have a reason to harm them, and because I don't have the backbone to stand up against The Academy, I'm going to do it. I wasn't Sith material, but I didn't have an alternative, I couldn't escape The Academy on my own, and even if I did, where would I go? Home? I'd just be caught again and this time, I'd be executed instead of being sent to Korriban, to The Jedi? No, they'd punish me once they found out what I did during my trails, The Chiss? Again, The Empire will find me, in fact, The Ascendancy might even willingly hand me over due to their alliance - I had no alternative, no hope...only a mission to kill a looter.

The whole trial seemed rather pointless, just going to get a holocron, an old one, yes, likely full of ancient knowledge, but if Vernache's eyes could see the looter breach the chamber, why didn't they just take the holocron for themselves...I had a feeling there was something more to this, Vernache said this would be a trial of the mind and of combat, given her spies are down there, somewhere, somehow, I had to image cracking the sealed door would be difficult, and perhaps the reason why the looter wasn't defeated is that the looter is more powerful than the watchers...how powerful were the watchers to begin with? What even were they? Perhaps the watchers weren't even physical at all, perhaps Vernache's eyes were some sort of Force Technique, that could explain how I've never seen them despite the fact they've evidently been here watching me the whole time. The Force was incredibly strange and fascinating, it could do so many things and it was equally mysterious, I didn't know how it could do these things or what even could be done, for all I know, one day, I'll be able to use The Force for things I couldn't even begin to comprehend, things like teleportation and mind control...the possibilities are endless, but then I remembered the room of dead acolytes, the room of people I killed, is endless power worth it? I don't know if I can say either way right now.

* * *

I walked down the steps of The Sith Academy, my black hood covering my blue face, to the untrained eye, my featureless solid red eyes must seem devoid of feeling, but if a true Chiss was here on Korriban with me, they would immediately see the guilt in my eyes, the conflicted feelings inside of me, and bubbling resentment for my current predicament. All the red armored Academy guards saw was two glowing red orbs masked by a hood of darkness on a black robed figure - even us acolytes looked as frightening as Sith, though for good reason as well, I tore apart a whole other group of acolytes, I was the among the final three of my class; we had Seidoa, the violent berserkering warrior with two swords, Dayo-Kaza, the specialist with a unique and deadly weapon killing more with shock-and-awe than with actual effectiveness, and then there was me, the lightning-swinging little murderer. Vernache wanted to turn us all into killing machines, and me in particular, I didn't want to be the one to fill the role, but otherwise, I'd be a dead woman.

Only a few meters later, I was descending down into darkness, another Tomb, The Tomb of Ajunta Pall, the oldest Tomb in The Valley of The Dark Lords and the relevant section to my trial was the front wing, originally built below the proper entrance to The Valley - which has now collapsed and been buried - it has now been excavated in such a way that this part of The Tomb in the center of The Valley of The Dark Lords was the way to enter, with the pillars on the roof once being on the surface level of The Tomb, before The Sith Empire arrived to seriously excavate the area, which the smaller and weaker Sith Empire of Revan wasn't able to do, they were literally barely skimming the surface of Korriban. I turned left at the bottom of the steps into the Tomb before turning right twice onto a cat-walk looking over main section of The Tomb, below I saw a Sith Pureblood acolyte with a large vibrosword - not a training lightsaber at all - kill a K'Lor'slug, she felt incredibly powerful, and to her, I think I did as well, as we made eye contact for a moment before both of us moved on to our own trials. She must've been out of sequence with the other acolytes, as she wields a sword yet wasn't part of the martial trial Dayo-Kaza and Seidoa did.

The Sith Academy was full of people, there were so many full bunks in our quarters even as acolytes were dying by the dozens every single day with each passing trial. The Sith Empire was definitely mobilizing, they were building massive starships in the form of The Empress-Class Super Dreadnought as well as thousands of smaller, more tactical and personal starships - many to deploy the very Sith they were shaping up in The Academy above. I wonder what exactly I'd be doing if I became Sith, Vernache said my would-be Master wanted an apprentice strong in The Force, but she never specified what for, all I knew is that, as always with The Sith, it would be something nefarious, but I didn't know enough about Sith politics or culture to know what tasks particularly Force-Sensitive acolytes do in The Empire, from the holovids I would watch at home on V'aran'abb, the front line warriors of The Sith Empire tended to be brutes who fought mainly with their lightsabers, so I suppose the Sith more proficient in The Force were more often leaders or engaging in subterfuge, assassination, or as a force-multiplier than as front-line warriors.

I descended deeper and deeper into The Tomb until the point where I had no idea how much sand and rock was even above me, I didn't know how sturdy ancient stone was but I certainly did not feel comfortable so deep in a Tomb - I don't know how Vernache's eyes did it, whatever they were, if anything - especially not the oldest of the most ancient collection of Tombs on Korriban and likely within the entire Sith Empire. Finally, at the bottom of a long and thin staircase, I reached an equally long corridor engraved in ancient Sith tongues dotted with carvings of ancient Pureblood warriors, I grabbed my training lightsaber and lit the enclosed yellow blade to use as a makeshift torch. At the end of the hallway, The Tomb opened up to a larger chamber with a massive sealed door at the other end, I assumed this was where the holocron and the looter were trapped - on some level, I hoped the conditions were poor enough that the looter had already died, though I doubted it, these Trials existed only to test me and my fellow acolytes - I wouldn't even be surprised if Vernache herself engineered the looter entering The Tomb for the holocron and getting trapped.

There was no way to open the door from what I could see, merely two circular orbs that could serve as lights, though there weren't lit - meanwhile I noticed the two small chambers to either side of me, and I realized what this must've been - a puzzle, perhaps solving both halves of the puzzle would light both lights and then the door would open and I could retrieve the acolyte and hopefully, there would no longer be a looter to deal with. I held my training lightsaber and walked to my left, finding an old computer terminal in the left chamber - looking over my shoulder, I saw the same in the right chamber. I held the training lightsaber up high to light the terminal as I activated it, sluggish from it's ancient age and covered with a fine layer of dust from the slowly crumbling bricks, struggling to support the weight of The Valley of The Dark Lords above - I wanted to leave here as soon as possible and I really, really hoped I wouldn't have to fight anything - perhaps the beasts and any other looters would be draw away by the Pureblood girl fighting above and I wouldn't have to worry about being ambushed while attempting to open this cursed door over this old holocron. I valued the history of The Chiss and now, as an acolyte of The Sith, I should value their culture as well, but I don't, there's nothing to value in savagery and genocide, though The Sith viewed those as positive traits.

I found the function to open the door and activated it, I saw the left orb on the ancient door light up in green, but when I turned back to the terminal, I saw a timer - 15 seconds - I tried my hardest to rush across the room, running as fast as I could in these Sith Robes - they were light and flexible, but they still limited my running stride - however, it was no avail, the green light on the door went out and I was back to square one. I tried again, this time from the right terminal, hoping in vain that for whatever reason the timer here would be different, but no avail, I ran again and only ended up in the middle of the room, drowned in light from the green orb until it faded out, leaving me in darkness without a clear solution. I looked to my left, the terminal would only give me fifteen seconds to get to the terminal on the right and click the correct function - I had an idea - I went to both terminals and set them up on the function neither orb was lit, but I could light both orbs here, surely I could. I went to the terminal on the left, clicked the function, didn't even wait to see the timer before turning to the terminal on the right and running, I used The Force to make me quicker, I felt a wind coming off me and blowing me forward - I was moving with Force Speed - the green light wasn't out yet and I had made it to the right terminal - only to find it reset when I clicked the function on the left. It seems this trap was meant to be opened by two people simultaneously, meanwhile, I was here alone, hopelessly.

I sat down back in the middle of the chamber, I knew that both Jedi and Sith would meditate, reaching out to The Force to learn and understand more about not only The Force, but about themselves as well. I reached out with The Force myself, feeling my power, feeling the darkness of The Tombs - darkness in two ways, literal darkness and intense Darkness from the spirits of long dead Sith - I wonder how precise my power could be, I mentally focused myself on a single grain of sand, seemingly something that fell from a crack in the roof, I focused and felt myself roll the grain of sand, interesting. I lifted the one grain with The Force, allowing it to levitate at eye level - though mine were closed due to meditation - and then allowing it to zip around my head before stopping abruptly, back where it had been - meanwhile, I focused on another grain behind me and to the right, this one I rolled into the dust and made circles, I could do both precisely, I could levitate a grain on my left and roll one on my right - now I had a real idea. I let go of both grains and focused beyond them, I focused on the terminals in the side chambers, then, with The Force, I found both functions to open to door, finally, I clicked both at once and felt myself be drowned in warm, green light.

I opened my eyes to see that between the green orbs, a large button now revealed itself - this must be how to actually open the door. I rose to my feet and walked to the door, I lifted my left hand and placed it on the button, I pushed down and heard the loud, rumbling sound of the door beginning to open. I watched the massive door open and looked inside - this particular chamber was thankfully well lit - and saw the holocron on a large pedestal at the center of the door, meditating before it, was a robed Kaleesh woman - a Sith I feared...did Vernache fool me? Perhaps I wasn't the favorite, instead I was just an ignorant little fool who fell for her praise and fell into this trap...I was just going to be killed by a Sith - I saw a vicious, double-bladed vibrosword on her lap, my eyes wandered to her hip and I saw a stealth generator - hunters on V'aran'abb often used them when after dangerous big game - fortunately, I did not see a lightsaber. though given my skills with this pathetic training weapon, the double-bladed vibrosword would be more than enough. I braced myself as I saw her rise and turn to me.

"My lord," she bowed, a traditional Kaleesh bone mask over her red, scaly lizard face "I am honored to be in the presence of a glorious Sith,"

"Glorious Sith?" I asked, bewildered by the fact that one: she wasn't attacking me, and two: she thought I was a Sith Lord, surely if she's on Korriban she knows the outfits of Sith Acolytes, they're all over The Valley of The Dark Lords.

"Yes, my people see the truth - The Sith are gods among us - I came here to study this holocron, to learn more about The Sith, to learn more about our gods," she was fanatical, surely she is more extreme in these beliefs than the other Kaleesh, though I did notice that she said learn about The Sith, nothing about becoming a Sith, and clearly the way she treated me meant she wasn't a Sith herself, perhaps I was safe from her using The Force at least, though, surely it couldn't hurt to be sure - and to be honest, I didn't want to fight her regardless.

"Do you want to become Sith?" I asked.

"No," she looked down, almost depressed "I don't have The Force, I cannot become Sith myself - I can merely learn, strengthen myself, and live like a Sith god, that is why I am on Korriban."

"So you worship The Sith, yes?" I asked, cautiously, hoping she would be willing to hand over the Holocron.

"Yes," she said simply now, gone were her monologues on Sith glory, now she was eyeing me suspiciously as well, her yellowed, slit eyes darting all over me.

"Then perhaps you can donate the Holocron to The Sith?" I was desperate now, I felt the longer I stayed here the more likely it was she would attack me.

"You do not wear a lightsaber, you wear a training lightsaber - a glorified vibrosword - you are no Sith!" she growled, now brandishing her double-bladed vibrosword "I found this Holocron myself, I waited here in the dark for three days without food or water, now you wish to take it from me with lies so that you - not I - may learn the precious secrets?!"

"Look - I opened the door for you, please, you can go, I just need the holocron, I am an acolyte of The Sith Academy, I'm just trying to complete my -" she interrupted me.

"No! If you want this Holocron, you will take it from me!" she put the Holocron into a pouch on her belt and disappear from sight, she was using her stealth generator. I reached out with The Force, felt where she was, and did something else I knew The Sith often did - I rose my hand and curled it into a fist, watching her stealth field fade away as I Force Choked her, however, she was a very resilient one - she grabbed her vibrosword - not her throat as most would when choked - and slashed at me. I dropped her from my Force Choke as I saw a cut on my left arm. I felt a deep, burning pain and lashed out, electrocuting her with Force Lightning, make her feel the same pain and burn that I did. I stopped The Force Lightning and pulled my training lightsaber to my right hand with The Force - it was my offhand, but she didn't know that - holding it against her throat.

"The Holocron, please," I was practically begging her, I was wounded and quickly exhausting myself with all these Force feats, I wouldn't be able to keep up the fight much longer.

"You defeated me entirely with The Force," she said, astonished "You will be Sith, acolyte, you will be a god, and I will be watching." she said this and disappeared with her stealth generator again, where she had been laid the Holocron - if I wanted to, I could still feel her with The Force, I could stop her escape, but I already said I didn't want to fight and I especially did not want to kill her. I picked up the Holocron and put it in my robes, I had to remember what her presence felt like, after all, she said she'd be watching me, that was rather worrisome - with her stealth generator, I had no idea where she'd be, when, and I didn't even know why she went from trying to kill me to promising to watch over me - she was a strange one. In any case, I had the Holocron and I would need to report back to Overseer Vernache, only to be sent on another suicide mission.

* * *

Alrighty then, another five thousand words of chapter for you, I hope you're all enjoying, if not, tell me so I can improve my story, I'm fully open to constructive criticism!


	4. The Tomb of Naga Sadow

Chapter four! Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe slowly but surely is reaching the end of her trials, just The Tomb of Naga Sadow and The Tomb of Tulak Horde remain- that's it for my author's note this time, hope you read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Prologue.

The Valley of The Dark Lords.

Chapter IV.

The Tomb of Naga Sadow.

* * *

The Kaleesh had escaped into the shadows and I had The Holocron, hopefully that would be enough for the Overseers, if not, well I suppose Overseer Vernache would have me execute, just as what occurred to Jzaan. I wasn't vicious, I wasn't merciless, but The Sith were, Vernache ordered executions with delight and Calenph committed them with gleeful efficiency - I had to wonder though, were the prime candidates to become Sith already brutal and savage, or did they become brutal and savage because of being Sith? Perhaps one day I would be just as evil as Vernache and Calenph, perhaps even more so, I didn't know, I could only hope that I would still be myself, still have the mercy and empathy that make me a person...I don't want to be a Dark Lord, I didn't want to kill senselessly, yet I already did in my second trial, I executed the poor acolytes - and if the Kaleesh had kept fighting, it was very likely that I would've ended up executing her as well - I simply didn't know, when I tapped into the Dark Side power like I did when I murdered that Pureblooded acolyte I completely lost control, I didn't see her, I merely saw red mist and felt rage and pain that I unleashed on that poor girl...I didn't like that.

I put the Holocron in my robes and shook these thoughts from my head, climbing the steps back out of this deep chamber, back to the surface where The Sith Pureblood acolyte was slaughtering the K'Lor'slugs - I figured she was already vicious, the ideal Sith, red-skinned and brutish - here my mind goes again - something I wasn't and didn't want to be, now I had to turn in this Holocron, hope that it satisfies the Overseers, and if I survive the meeting with Vernache and Calenph, they'd just send me on another suicide mission to The Tombs, then another, until finally I either died or became Sith...I'm not so sure which is the worse fate here - I wonder what other acolytes were here on Korriban, if there is anyone merciful here, anyone that could understand my predicament - deep down I knew the answer is no, The Sith are vicious animals intent on murder and I was the unfortunate idealistic Chiss girl blessed with The Force, this nigh-infinite magic powers yet I was cursed to only use them for evil, I was cursed to be a Sith, executing the innocent and crushing The Republic, people who I didn't know and had no reason to harbor ill will towards, perhaps if I died here on Korriban, it would be best for everyone - The Sith wouldn't have the dead weight of a merciful acolyte turned apprentice, The Republic wouldn't have yet another Sith to fight, and I wouldn't need to be the one fighting and killing the people and soldiers of The Galactic Republic to serve a creed I didn't believe in for a destructive race of conquerors.

I rose back up to the main level of The Tomb of Ajunta Pall and walked back through the various dark chambers until I reached the catwalk again, now rather than overlooking the Sith Pureblood acolyte killing The K'Lor'slugs, I now only had her carnage to look at, dead slugs torn apart laying in pools of blood as the dark stones behind them were equally red stained with drying blood. I shook my head and walked away, I couldn't stand the look or the smell of the slaughter, I was glad I wasn't the one committing it, I couldn't stand this intensely personal face to face fighting, at least The Force allowed me to fight at a distance, avoid the worst parts of the slaughter, the blood wouldn't literally be on my hands - but I'd be lying to myself, I'd still be a murderer, just a pathetic little murdering coward too scared to fight up close and much too scared to resist the Overseers telling me to murder, I was a dirty pathetic wretch forced to be a cruel monster, killing others with the wave of my hand. I couldn't speak my mind and I couldn't resist, all that I could do was mentally lament my actions and wallow in my own guilt - no one would feel pity for me, to The Sith, I was a weak, cowardly acolyte, to everyone else, I was a cruel and merciless Sith - there was no winning here, my only path was to push further and further through my trials until I die or become Sith - such a woeful fate.

I turned the corner and climbed up the steps before turning again and climbing the final steps to the surface - I pulled my hood over my head to avoid being burned up by the harsh morning desert sun - and walked the rest of the way to The Sith Academy - to my left, the red-armored guards of The Valley of The Dark Lords marched in a formation, their faceless red mask with black visors not revealing an ounce of humanity, for all I knew there were droid heads below those helmets - and if they could build them cheaply enough, The Sith surely would purge their troops to replace with droids - eliminating dissent and unpredictability - if it were possible to give a droid The Force, I'd imagine acolytes like me with hesitation and morality would quickly be executed and replaced - and like I said, I probably deserved it too. I just couldn't stop thinking of all those poor acolytes I electrocuted and killed, acolytes almost as powerful in The Force as I was, in a sensible world, we'd all be Sith right now, but no, The Sith purge and pit acolytes against each other in a self-destruction fascination with their own power, clinging to the ideas of psychopaths drunk with The Dark Side.

I went from walking on sand to walking up the metal massively wide steps to The Academy, as I climbed higher and higher up I saw the towering statues of ancient Sith flanked with long red banners emblazoned with the white hexagonal logo of The Sith Empire. With that I turned and walked around the vestibule into the large main chamber of The Academy, the tiled floor had a wooden look and texture, an odd clash with the cold metal walls and the towering staircase leading to the second floor, incredibly high above the main floor, the massive spire in the center was deeply engraved by the ancient Sith and topped with a red Holocron, oozing off powerful, visible from the red smoke coming off of it, almost like hellfire - in some ways, I wish it was, this place was the training ground of conquerors, torturers, and warlocks, this place deserved to be burned down, with all these pitiful murderers like me in it - but I knew that this wouldn't happen, this place was a nigh-indestructible fortress, the fact this place still stood after an assault by the Galactic Republic more than a decade ago is proof of that, this massive metal pyramid stood triumphantly over The Valley of The Dark Lords and I distinctly feared that this metal hellhole, The Sith Academy, would stand for thousands of years, another ancient source of power - but certainly not history - for The Sith.

I walked up the metal steps - they had no railings, evidently The Sith Empire didn't care very much for the health and safety of their Acolytes - to the second floor, where I'd finally enter Overseer Vernache's office and finally find out if the holocron itself was enough - knowing Assistant Overseer Calenph, she'd demand the Kaleesh's head, but Vernache had power over the Cyborg, and whoever The Sith Lord commissioning this class of acolytes held the real power, even Vernache couldn't overturn the real master, the real master who apparently wanted an acolyte strong in The Force - at least I hoped that The Sith Lord wanted that, for all I know, Vernache was deceiving me, leading me into a trap, no doubt she'd order Dayo-Kaza or Seidoa to execute me on top of that - or perhaps Vernache was telling the truth and I'd be ordered to kill one or both of them - in any case, I hoped that now, as I walked through the doorway into Overseer Vernache's office, seeing The Sith Pureblood sitting smug and silently in her chair, her Cyborg assistant Calenph once again pacing back and forth in front of us, Seidoa standing at attention with two mighty vibroswords on her back, her feline face impossible to read. I waited for a few moments, standing obediently before the Overseers, feeling the tension - Seidoa was a Dark presence, someone or something has done terrible things to her and now she wanted to do terrible things to others in turn, Calenph was even Darker, a force of pure hatred who wanted to kill us both - not even Vernache was quite as dark; but make no mistake, Vernache is firmly a presence of The Dark Side, just not as vicious and dark as Calenph - if I could feel them as Dark presences, what did they feel me as? The tension was alleviated slightly when Dayo-Kaza - a rather neutral presence, but slowly and surely leaning towards the Dark Side - entered and stood between us, the three of us had survived our third trials and now we were going to present evidence of that - or we would die.

"Seidoa Avarn," Assistant Overseer Calenph began with the Cathar "You were sent to The Tomb of Tulak Horde to activate an excavator shut down and map the revealed section of The Tomb - present your Datapad." The Cathar silently presented her Datapad to The Assistant Overseer, she looked closely at the data and compared it to her own Datapad - presumably to cross reference the maps "Very well, a small section revealed, you best have cleared the way for the archaeologists to continue their work, because all you've given us is an antechamber."

"I did what you told me," Seidoa hissed.

"Silence acolyte," Vernache's voice boomed throughout the room "Consider yourself lucky to even be allowed to continue with such a miniscule accomplishment!"

"Dayo-Kaza Herrenph," Calenph moved on to the Iridonian Zabrak, her tannish brown face attempting not to show an expression, I could tell she was scared - nothing to be ashamed of, we all were, we could all be executed at the flick of a wrist - she stood tall too, the horns around her head looked almost elegant as she tried her hardest to look proud and strong before the Overseers "You were sent into The Tomb of Naga Sadow to hunt down and kill the cyclops beast, Seh-Run, a monster that hunts acolyte and present a picture of the carnage on your Datapad - do so." I saw her double-bladed vibrosword was bloodied as she presented her Datapad - from my angle I noticed a decapitated green head with a single large eye separated from it's body by a pool of blood - she had done it, she accomplished a trial of combat, now hopefully, I will find out that I passed my trial of the mind.

"Two of the three acolytes have done it - Calenph, one last acolyte to search." Vernache looked down at me as the Cyborg now stood in front of me.

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," Calenph began "You were sent deep into The Tomb of Ajunta Pall to open a chamber - a trap springed by a looter - and retrieve a holocron from the looter, present it."

"I will," I said quietly as I pulled the holocron back out of my robes and presented it to Calenph.

"Excellent," Calenph held the holocron up and allowed Vernache to pull it towards her with The Force "What happened with the looter?"

"Well," I was dreading this question "The looter was a Kaleesh with a stealth generator - I thought I had her cornered but she disappeared then, leaving the holocron and escaping - there was nothing I could do," I wasn't lying.

"Learn to track the invisible with The Force acolyte, or you will be ambushed and killed," Overseer Vernache chastised "Nevertheless, you have retrieved the holocron - you'll pass, but this is not perfect." I breathed a sigh of relief as Vernache stood up and walked out from behind her desk to face us.

"You survive, this time." Calenph growled at me before walking up to her position behind the desk and to the left.

"Gl'ickeneose," Vernache faced me first "Your next trial will be a special one, orders came from above even your commissioner's position - deep within The Tomb of Naga Sadow there is a chamber that once imprisoned Khem Val, the servant of Darth Imperius and Tulak Horde before her, Imperius sits on The Dark Council, she is one of the most powerful Sith the galaxy has ever known and she wants three runes from the bottom of The Dashade chamber, this is the lowest part of The Tomb of Naga Sadow and is crawling with K'Lor'slugs - retrieve the runes for Imperius or you will have failed a trial for a Dark Councilor herself - I hardly need to tell you what the consequences to such a mistake would be."

"Understood, I'll retrieve the runes," I had no idea why I was being singled out, why this Dark Councilor needed the runes, or even what they'd be used for - if she already freed Khem Val and has the Dashade Assassin purely under her control, why does she need runes? Perhaps I wouldn't even figure that out, The Sith hardly wanted to share secrets that contribute so heavily to their power as a titan of an alien assassin would - Dashade were ancient servants to The Sith in the time of Tulak Horde and are remarkably resistant to The Force, The Dark Lord used them as shock troops against their enemies in the famed conquests of Yn, Chabosh, and the Dromund System - the very system where the capital of The Sith Empire now lies. The Dashade were known across the galaxy for their brutality and their conquest; before their service to The Sith, a clan of Dashade raided what is now the outer reaches of Chiss Space and briefly ruled V'aran'abb, my home planet, thousands of years ago.

I walked out of Overseer Vernache's office and down the mighty steps to the first floor of The Sith Academy, I walked past the monolithic, holocron-tipped spire in the center and past the red armored Dark Honor Guards who bowed before me once again, as they always do before I entered the vestibule and walked around and out, pulling up my hood as I left The Academy for the burning heat of the outside, the long, red Sith banners behind me as I walked down the metal steps out onto the sand - The Tomb of Ajunta Pall was directly ahead, dark and deep, I had only just been there and I could only wonder where my Kaleesh stalker is now. I turned to the left and then right, walking against the outer wall of The Valley of The Dark Lords before I once again reached a new Tomb, I turned left and walked down the steps into The Tomb of Naga Sadow, the newest of The Tombs in The Valley, named after the last great Dark Lord who lead The Sith into The Great Hyperspace War - the devastating loss caused Sadow himself to flee to Yavin 4 whilst the rest of The Sith Empire retreated to the Unknown Regions under the command of Lord Vitiate, who would become The Sith Emperor on Dromund Kaas and form the current Sith Empire.

The Tomb of Naga Sadow was crawling with ancient droids, as I entered the first chamber of The Tomb, in the shadows of massive statues of long dead Sith the attacked, they were using archaic blasters and swords, plus weapons they captured from unfortunate acolytes turned victims, I rose both my arms and saw lightning shoot upwards from my blue fingertips before separating downwards and bombarding the droids - I used a Force Storm, my purple lightning short-circuiting and overloading the droids, forcing them to collapse, overloaded and nonfunctional - Lightning was electricity and therefore extra effective against these droids, these electronic machines of wires and generators were dated and far from lightning-proof, realistically, they were more designed to fight against looters than Sith acolytes, but that didn't change the fact that, in great numbers and with the element of surprise, they could be deadly - any foe could be in these circumstances, especially given my fighting style was dependent on long range and having enough time to think, to reach within, and to generate the amount of power I needed to unleash these bursts of lightning, these Force pushes, and, as I used against the Kaleesh, Force chokes.

I wandered throughout the labyrinthic halls and chambers of The Tomb and electrocuted more and more of these droids - they were everywhere, ambushing from the shadows, leaping up from the curled up deactivated positions, given away only by the loud, high pitched electronic squeal the droid gave before attacking - I went deeper and deeper into The Tomb, down halls, steps, past the towering statues, and past the deceased bodies of failed acolytes, killed by the very droids that I'm fighting now. I reached yet another large chamber, this one seemed to finally be the end as when I walked out to the center of it, I could look out into The Dashade Chamber itself, including the massive electrified cage which once held the great Khem Val prisoner, however this wasn't my present concern, I walked into the chamber onto the stone ledge, looking down onto the sandy chasm below - I could hear the distant growl of K'Lor'slugs and feel the intense cold darkness - I had no idea where from, was it from Khem Val or was it from the neighboring Star Map chamber? Korriban held endless power, millions of relics, and just as many secrets, and I suspected, down there, quite a few secret awaited me.

I turned left and walked along the ledge, between the stone wall on one side and a very, very long fall on the other, I turned right along the wall before left again and off the ledge, onto solid ground. I now saw the steps down to the bottom, in the next room and blocked off by some large pieces of ruble - though, given what I now knew I could do, this wreckage shouldn't be much of an obstacle - I took a deep breathe, rose both my hands, aiming at the ruble, I closed my solid red eyes and focused my mind, I could feel it as I lifted a collapse rectangular pillar, engraved with old Sith hieroglyphs; I carried the burden now, but not with my shoulders, not with my body at all, simply with my mind, with The Force. I set the pillar down gingerly against the opposite wall; I pulled out the top half of the split statue next, once again, the cultured part of me opted to be careful, even though I knew The Sith would merely scan it for any hint of power and if they find nothing, either leave it, trash it, or present it as a gift to some sycophant officer in their service. When I removed the top of the statue, some of the lighter ruble fell away - mainly old metal scaffolding from when The Sith originally excavated this stairwell. Finally, I grabbed the bottom of the statue - broken off of its pedestal at the ankles - and used it to pull most of the remaining ruble out of the way, with a final wave and the resulting rush of Force Energy, the path was finally clear - now I could go to the bottom of the chamber and retrieve the runes.

I climbed down step after step, turned corner after corner, until I finally reached the bottom, where sand accumulated to the point where it was forming hills and broad depressions in between - perhaps one day there would be a Valley within The Valley of The Dark Lords. A few small slugs rushed me but another Force Wave pushed them clean away and allowed me to dispatch them in my usual style of quick lightning bolts, my vibrosword on my back just in case it would be needed, but my fighting style was certainly not martial. With the few small K'Lor'slugs dead at my feet, in my hubris I felt accomplished and proudly walked over to the circular pedestal which lead all the way up to the same ledge I was on earlier - this one supported the otherwise floating platform where Khem's electric prison once stood, yet I only saw two of the runes - rectangular tablets of Sith writings, the spot for the third was emptied, and recently. I quickly strapped the runes to my back where I could haul them as I searched for the third, but all of the sudden, I turned quickly to see that the chamber truly was crawling with K'Lor'slugs, a massive red slug slithered over the third rune, halfway buried in the sand - the remnants of the last acolyte which tried this Trial - surrounded by many, many more of the little slugs, I hadn't won the fight, far from it.

I had to be smart, I had to thin the herd as much as I could, so once again, just as I had in that accursed room with my fellow acolytes, I let the power of The Force flow through me, my own energy radiating off me in the form of purple lightning which I gathered at my fingertips as the slugs grew restless, on the verge of their own attack, I launched my Sith Lightning upwards and an intense purple Force Storm reigned down upon the slugs, a handful of the small ones fell but the big, red one only seemed to get angrier, the little slugs around me now rushed me and I had to get desperate, I grabbed my vibrosword and swung down through one on my left, I was encumbered by the two heavy stone runes on my back - I was literally carrying two massive bricks the size of my torso on my back. The vibrosword idea was a valiant effort but I wasn't going to survive like this, once again I launched a Force Wave to give me a little bit of breathing space and I hit the red one with a constant barrage of Force Lightning again, strong enough to push it away, I kept giving more and more power in order to blow the slug into the wall behind me, its tail dragging across the sand below as I slammed it into a pair of statues. That was all I could do for the moment as the little slugs surrounded me again, I picked one by random and hit it with a Lightning Strike which I then expanded into Chain Lightning, blasting through K'Lor'slug after K'Lor'slug, electrocuting away the small but deadly nuisances so I may focus on the red slug, now recovering from being blow into the wall.

I had to catch my breathe quickly, between the droids earlier, the ruble I moved, the first group of slugs I killed and now the current group, I was rapidly draining my energy, I couldn't do much more at the moment - I had to end this fight quickly or else it would end me quickly. So I decided to try and end this fight the way I did with the Kaleesh, I Force Choked the slug, it's fat red body levitated in the air and began to slowly asphyxiate as I positioned the red monster between two of the towering obelisks dotting the area down here, I slammed the slug into the obelisk on the right and it's body fell to the sandy ground, limp. Surely this time I had won, I slammed it into the obelisk hard enough to make fragments of rock go flying through the air, but, alas, I hadn't done enough, on its little legs the slug pulled itself up and charged me. I leaped out of the way and slid down around on the sand, I pulled myself up to my feet as quick as I could in my robes before hitting the slug with three Lightning Strikes in rapid succession, the beast screamed and writhed in pain, slowly but surely I was turning the tide, now I had to press the advantage while I still had the chance.

I used both my hands to slam the damaged obelisk down onto my last obstacle of this Trial, under the weight of ancient stone, the beast was finally subdued, now I had the chance to execute the monster and finally get myself the tablet. I grabbed my vibrosword and slit the screaming beast's throat, a moment later when the final echo of that blood chilling died down, it became clear that finally, the fight was over, I put my blade away and pulled the tablet from the sand, I strapped the final rune to my robes and I walked back out of this low chamber and back to the primary level of The Tomb of Naga Sadow knowing I had done what I needed to do in order to pass the trial - I had the three runes for Khem Val, but with the pressure of a Darth Councilor with a personal reason to be involved in this Trial due to the strange circumstances -apparently needing some sort of guidance or at least information on The Dashade. In any case, I had the three runes, I was now a little more confident that I truly had defeated all the slugs, so I suppose it's time to return to The Sith Academy.

"Impressive," suddenly the sound of a stealth generator deactivating revealed the presence of the Kaleesh. I turned to face her "Long ago, I attempted to take these runes myself, but the moment I grabbed one I was ambushed by these slugs, I fought valiantly - that slug is the den mother, she used to have a mate."

"But they managed to push you off nevertheless?" I wasn't trying to mock, merely to understand - I was keeping my eyes firmly on the Kaleesh, waiting for the moment a fight begins.

"You are strong in The Force Acolyte, you are destined to be Sith...not all of us have this privilege." The Kaleesh said, prompting a pause, I wasn't sure of what to say next, I didn't want to be Sith, I wanted to live a normal life, I hate The Sith and all they stand for, however, I doubted this fanatical alien would take particularly kindly to my opinion, she worshipped them, and now that I was seemingly getting closer and closer to becoming a Sith myself, this Kaleesh was beginning to worship me as well, with this excessive watching and this proclamation that I'm destined to be Sith.

"Why are you watching me?" I finally asked, breaking the silence, I wanted an answer.

"All of my life I have worshipped The Sith, when our paths first crossed I was immensely disappointed to learn you were merely an acolyte, but the way you beat me so easily...I know now that you are going to become a Sith, you are going to go far in the galaxy, and I finally have the chance to see the rise of a Sith, this may be my only chance to see it - think, you could become a Sith Lord, you could become a Darth, you can and will become great, and I wish to see it all - would you really deny me this opportunity?"

"Wow...I'm honored," I didn't know what to say, sure Overseer Vernache already told me I was apparently destined to be Sith, sure I heard it elsewhere to and at this point I knew my chances were rather high, but this idea to become a Lord or even a Darth was completely foreign to me, could I really rise up from being a Chiss peasant from the frontier territories to being one of the most powerful women in The Sith Empire, if not the Galaxy? Perhaps there could be more to this story, perhaps the Kaleesh could have greater involvement in this great vision of hers - and to me, she'd be an excellent help, a well traveled and well armed Assassin with a deadly double-bladed vibrosword and that damn stealth generator of hers, so I asked "What's your name?"

"Pernox," she said simply.

"Pernox, my name is Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe, if you believe I'm destined to rise to greatness, if you insist on watching me from the shadows, why not go a step further? How would you like to be the beginning of my power base? Would you like to accompany me?"

"I would be honored, I will protect you Mistress V'aran'abbykhe, I will be your assassin, I will be your bodyguard from the shadows, I will serve you as Khem Val served Darth Imperius herself!" The historical side of my appreciated the situationally relevant reference.

"Then join me Pernox, help me accomplish these great goals you have in mind for me!" I didn't know if this was the adrenaline from fighting the slugs or if I actually believed what Pernox told me, but with her help, and possibly with the help of others in the future, I was confident that I'd now become a Sith at very least - I'm sure other Sith would take the opportunity to punish Pernox and treat her like a slave, but I was just a young Chiss who was apparently strong in The Force, so I would treat her not as a slave but as a companion, one who I was very grateful to have given the circumstances of facing my final Trial and who knows what may happen afterwards if I do succeed "And Pernox? Thank you,"

She simply nodded in response, the Kaleesh did have moments of passion, she had moments of long monologues about Sith greatness, but she wasn't one for small talk it seemed, she could be quite monosyllabic, nevertheless, I was grateful to have an ally at such a time like this. With the three runes on my back and a new ally in my corner, things were finally looking up, regardless of the brutality and immorality I'm sure would be in my future because of how The Sith behave. Me and Pernox, two aliens on Korriban, one who wanted nothing to do with The Sith and another who worshipped them, now I admit this was hardly a conventional duo, but I had the feeling that this would be the start of a beautiful friendship, and, with that, Pernox and I turned and finally left The Tomb of Naga Sadow.

* * *

Alright, so one more chapter of Korriban prologue and we can get to the meat and potatoes of the story, we have ourselves the seeds of a power base and I hope you guys are liking it, believe me there will be a lot of companions by the end so if you don't like Pernox, don't worry, she's not going to be constant. I'm thinking of this sorta like a novelization of a Knights of The Old Republic style RPG taking place after Star Wars: The Old Republic, where Gl'ickeneose can be male or female, Light Side or Dark Side, this version is obviously Light Side female because that's what I'd do personally, the only real constant with Gl'ickeneose is the name, origin, and species, s/he can only be Chiss, just like Revan and The Exile could only be Human. Let me know what you think about this idea, obviously because of being a novelization it ends up being a bit more narrative but I'd still have the game itself be very, very story driven, I mean, it's inspired by Bioware titles after all! Anyway, please read and review.

I Love you all! Peace!


	5. The Tomb of Tulak Horde

Alright ladies, gentlemen, and miscellaneous, our five week journey began five weeks ago, but here is the end of our prologue, ladies and gentlemen, this is The Tomb of Tulak Horde, we are about to wrap up Korriban and move on to Act One! I really, really hope you guys read, review, and enjoy this chapter because it's our story's first of many milestone.

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Prologue.

The Valley of The Dark Lords.

Chapter V.

The Tomb of Tulak Horde.

* * *

As we reached the surface, I pulled up my hood to avoid sunlight while Pernox turned on her stealth generator, disappearing from sight.

"Why are you cloaking? I whispered, looking forward - I was smart enough to realize Pernox was disappearing for a reason and didn't want to reveal her presence, yet I wanted to know why: were we being ambushed, was Pernox hiding from some sort of enemies she had here on Korriban, or was she simply hiding for the sake of hiding - I could fully understand why someone who wish to be invisible to The Sith.

"Acolytes are not meant to have assistance unless The Overseer permits it, so I shall not reveal myself to The Overseers, I will cloak and wait, then I shall assist you in battle, understand?" Pernox said simply.

"Very well," I replied "But won't The Overseers still sense you?"

"I'm not going to enter The Sith Academy itself, I shall wait outside and then accompany you in order to observe your final trial."

"Alright, I'll be out as soon as I can," I told Pernox before walking up the massive staircase to The Sith Academy's entrance, I walked in the shadow of the massive statues, below the endlessly long red banners emblazoned with the emblem of The Sith Empire, and I walked past the Dark Honor Guards which, as always, bowed before me. For the fourth time, I walked the now familiar path to Overseer Vernache's office for my fifth and hopefully final trial - I was now dangerously close either dying or becoming a Sith, and I'm still not sure which worse, to be honest, I'm still not sure which one Pernox would prefer, all I knew is that I wanted to survive and unfortunately, surviving meant becoming Sith, hence, I was now, once again, in the office of a Sith Overseer and once again, I would do what Vernache and Calenph asked me to do because I was too weak and too scared to complain openly.

"Well, well, well," Assistant Overseer Calenph began, Vernache and Seidoa were nowhere in sight, it was just me and her "You carry the runes for Darth Imperius - hand them over,"

"Here," I handed over the runes, Calenph placed them on the table.

"We'll authenticate these before sending them to our Dark Councilor - best hope you didn't lie," the Cyborg hissed again as I heard footsteps approach from behind - just one set of footsteps - I closed my eyes and sensed the now rather familiar presence of Overseer Vernache, the real authority was now here - well, even that's not true, the real authority will soon receive the runes I recovered. Me, Seidoa, Calenph, Vernache, even my possible future Master were all essentially irrelevant in the realistic politics of The Sith Empire, The Emperor was long gone, a few would-be successors rose up and failed to fill his massively large and equally evil shoes, but now, The Dark Council is in control, including Darth Imperius herself.

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," Vernache began once she sat down at her desk "You journeyed deep into The Tomb of Marka Ragnos to learn The Sith Code, you learned Force techniques from Lord Maurn and gained her blessing, you completed a Trial of The Mind in The Tomb of Ajunta Pall and defeated a resourceful looter, and you served a Dark Councilor directly when you retrieved these Runes from The Tomb of Naga Sadow, now only one more Trial remains before you can become Sith - your final Trial awaits!"

"Where's Seidoa?" I asked, wondering if my Cathar rival was already displaced.

"Overseer Vernache sent her ahead on her individual Trial - it doesn't concern you," Assistant Overseer Calenph interjected.

"As I was saying," Vernache huffed - I wasn't sure if she was angrier at me or at Calenph, though I knew she would gladly maim us both if given the chance "Your final Trial brings you to the final Tomb in The Valley of The Dark Lords, The Tomb of Tulak Horde, the very same Sith who Khem Val served when those Runes you just recovered were written. Your Trial is quite simple: enter The Tomb, find the sarcophagus of Leekha Wasr, one of numerous Sith who served and died for Tulak Horde, and retrieve her Holocron. Do it and you will be awarded with your very own Lightsaber, the blessing of The Sith Academy, and, most importantly, an apprenticeship under a Sith Lord. Failure is not an option acolyte, you will succeed or you will die slowly, painfully, in The Tomb like so many others have - you may not be able to cheat death this time."

"It will be done," I bowed before Overseer Vernache, as I always did - I still hated myself for it, regardless of how many times I've done it - and left her office, if I survived, if I somehow did everything Korriban demanded of me, if I proved that I could be Sith, I would meet my Master, the person responsible for all of this, it wasn't me, it wasn't Calenph, it wasn't even Vernache, no, this Sith Lord was responsible for all this, for the deaths of those acolytes in my second trial - it wasn't my fault, I had no choice - I'm just a pawn, just like Calenph and Vernache are pawns, and like I was thinking earlier, even my future Master is a pawn, the mighty Sith Empire, a collection of sycophants and psychopaths who only serve as pawns in a bigger game between bigger sycophants and psychopaths, all rising to the craziest, deadliest, and craftiest of us all, the only ones who don't need to be sycophants - The Dark Council. This constantly self-destructive and endlessly chaotic so-called civilization was now my home, and by the end of the day, I'll either be dead in a Tomb of another tool of The Sith, what a wonderful life.

"What's the trial?" Pernox asked from her cloaked position once I had left The Sith Academy and descended the steps back onto the sandy surface of The Valley of The Dark Lords, reunited with my newfound Kaleesh ally.

"To retrieve Leekha Wasr's Holocron from The Tomb of Tulak Horde," I had no idea if that name's significant at all, Vernache did say she was one of many, which in Sith terms probably meant she was just a statistic, but the very same Overseer did apparently care enough to name the poor woman whose Tomb I was about to desecrate - though knowing The Sith, I had the feeling Leekha Wasr was far from a poor woman, I suspect some power-hungry, vicious terror from long ago, blissfully imprisoned in a stone casket...perhaps one day that would be me, lying dead and honored for some atrocity I committed after I finally fell to The Dark Side and became the good little murderous, maniacal Sith that The Overseers, my future Master, Dark Councilors like Imperius, and probably even Pernox, my only cloaked companion in the shadows, wanted me to be, just another power-hungry, crazed sociopath living in a culture that not only tolerates this madness but encourages and embraces it!

Pernox and I turned right at The Tomb of Ajunta Pall this time and walked past the little marketplace in the corner before turning left along the outer wall, walking past the buried original entrance to The Tomb of Ajunta Pall until I reached the next entrance, turning right and looking down the staircase into The Tomb of Tulak Horde, my next and final Trial on Korriban. I took a deep breathe, lowered my hood, and entered The Tomb, according to the information Vernache sent to my Datapad, Leekha Wasr was buried in a part of The Tomb beyond the collapsed atrium, meaning I'd be going fairly deep into this Tomb - as seemed usual with my Trials, always to the lowest and newest excavation of The Tomb - granted I was fully aware that The Sith would have long since plundered anything that they reached previously.

For the final time, I descended the steps into The Tomb, I reached the bottom and turned right and then left into a large chamber filled with slaves of various races - yet none were Human and none were Purebloods, typical species persecution from The Sith Empire - and the red armored Sith troopers pacing back and forth, armed to the teeth in case these particular slaves attempted to rebel - perhaps for the best, because like I saw at The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, the slaves, while admittedly possessed, clearly could prove a threat to a mere acolyte like myself, though now, with me knowing more and more about The Force, becoming stronger and stronger, as well as having my cloaked Kaleesh ally, Pernox, I'm confident that I could handle an encounter with all the slaves and all the troopers that The Tomb of Tulak Horde could offer, especially given I single-handedly survived my battles with the same sort of combatants at The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, as well as my fellow acolytes in The Sith Academy, I defeated Pernox in The Tomb of Ajunta Pall, and I dealt with the droids and K'Lor'slugs in The Tomb of Naga Sadow, now I was on my final trial - I could do this!

"Tulak Horde was an incredibly swordsman, The Sith under him regularly mastered each and every Lightsaber form and switched between them effortlessly, catching their opponents off guard and tearing them apart, all while their Dashade assassins act as shock troopers, Force resistant and willing to fight until they literally cannot move, this Leekha Wasr must have been a formidable warrior in her day, and her Holocron's secrets will hold incredible power. Sith Relics are all over The Empire and beyond, all of them hold secrets and power that you can utilize Gl'ickeneose," Pernox told me as he rounded a few more corners and climbed a few sets of steps until we reached The Atrium, the massive, sandy center of The Tomb of Tulak Horde. I pulled my hood up as the setting sun of Korriban continued to beat down heavily on this open air section - despite us getting closer and closer to night time, it was still incredibly hot.

"Well in that case, once we're off Korriban, we can search for some of these relics - perhaps one day they can be the beginning of our powerbase," I joked, I had no idea if I'd ever have a powerbase, I had no idea if I'd even live to leave Korriban, but I could at least put up a bit of a confident face on to Pernox, who was the closest thing I've had to friend since I was taken from V'aran'abb by The Sith. I'm sure that she would appreciate the thought, given her worshipping of The Sith - which for the record, I still couldn't comprehend, why do the Kaleesh have such a high view of The Sith? The Sith conquered the Kaleesh systems and enslaved thousands of their people, their planets were raped and pillaged, yet the Kaleesh, for whatever reason seemed to have a common respect for The Sith, with Pernox being an utter fanatic, and similar views having been attributed to Lord Xalek, a Kaleesh Sith Lord known for his particular brand of brutality, despite having been an apprentice to Darth Imperius, known to be intelligent, crafty, and pragmatic rather than bloody savagery.

Pernox - who remained cloaked - and I walked side by side into the atrium, there was some sort of large drilling machine in the center, slaves and troopers alike were gathered near them - I had a bad feeling about this.

Rightfully so because, as soon as the group noticed us, they opened fire. I ducked behind a nearby wall as I could sense the cloaked presence of Pernox circle around the laser fire to flank the group - I wanted to help her but I also didn't want to risk electrocuting her, so I'd have to put myself in the path of risk - I began by allowing The Force to flow through me again, summoning Lightning from within myself to launch a Chain Lightning attack upon the group of rebelling workers and troops. I turned out and fired my Chain Lightning at the gathering of enemies, letting them get electrocuted and die out, this was enough to kill some of them and I had to duck back into cover before the rest could return fire - at the same time, Pernox uncloaked and cut them down with her double-bladed vibrosword - they were caught completely off guard, having been focused on me and stunned by the deaths of their allies. Once I heard the scream, cutting, and blasting stop, I took a deep breathe and turned back out of cover, ready to quickly raise my hand and launch Force Lightning, however, there was no need, Pernox had crushed them, we survived the first hurdle this Tomb threw at us.

This wasn't the end though, just as soon as we defeated those rebelling forces, we were attacked by a rather familiar foe - ancient droids. I wasn't even going to bother with my vibrosword, I wasn't good with the weapon and I didn't need to become good with it, I had a much more dangerous weapon within me - The Force. I raised my right hand and gave one of the droids a quick shock and then ducked below a shot from another, then I blew the droid backwards into a stone wall behind him. Pernox was coming in and out of stealth as she sliced down droids I wasn't focused on. I must have been on an adrenaline rush or something because I was tearing droids apart left and right, one I took out with Force Lightning without even looking directly at the droid - I merely rose my left hand at it, another droid I simply propelled so high in the air that gravity and the ground below was enough to finish the robot off, two more were electrocuted away as I fired Force Lightning at them from both hands, finally, I finished the battle with a well timed blast of Force Lightning to wear the remaining droids had gathered - the battle was over. I fell to one knee and caught my breathe, I just killed a lot of droids and I just used a lot of Force Lightning.

Pernox silently came to my side as I pulled myself off and walked to the right of wear we entered, past the stone wall that I blew one of the droids into, past a recent excavation sight, and looked into a crudely dug cave linking two different halls from the Tomb together - a Sith shortcut to power, something tells me I would only see more and more of these if I became a Sith and got to see different corners of The Empire. In any case, I was grateful for this shortcut, the less time I had to spend in these damn Korriban Tombs, the better, I risked my life for someone else's relics far more than I wanted to - after this was over, if I ever had to crawl through a cave for a relic again, it would be for my own relic, my own power, just like Pernox was telling me when we came in. I was sick and tired of treasure hunting and murdering for this so-called reward of becoming a Sith - something I didn't even want - but, _when_ I become Sith, when I complete this Trial and beat Seidoa, I'll enjoy every freedom that Sith allegedly get - respect from the military, ability to travel somewhere other than this hot, sandy rock, and a Lightsaber rather than this dinky vibrosword.

We emerged from The cave in a different area of The Tomb, I dropped my hood now that we were out of The Atrium, this part of The Tomb of Tulak Horde is where his allies were buried, sarcophagus after sarcophagus lined the wall and each one was marked with The Sith's name in their ancient hieroglyphs - fortunately Vernache had sent me Leekha Wasr's name in those same hieroglyphs to my Datapad, so I knew what I was looking for - I scanned sarcophagus after sarcophagus and eventually, I found the one belonging to Wasr, I gently lifted the coffin's cover off with The Force and set it down on the floor. Inside was the withered remains of a Sith Pureblood woman in robes and a crown, her bony fingers clutched a Holocron. I took a deep breathe and pulled it from her hands, grimacing from the desecration of a corpse. I didn't want to bother even checking for a Lightsaber - I didn't want to take more off of a literal corpse - though perhaps, this was a mistake as taking the Holocron triggered a trap.

A wall opened up to my left and a massive, mutated Sith being - a particularly hideous Massassi, towering, hunchbacked, and spikes growing from its spine and disfigured, bald head - came out, carrying a shield and a vibro-pike, wearing tattered armor as it charged us, I dive out of the way but the mutant was quick to stop, from the floor I launched Force Lightning at it, meanwhile, Pernox braved the Lightning and stabbed at the Massassi, nevertheless, I stopped firing it - I hardly wanted to take my ally out of the fight here. I got to my feet as quick as I could and tried to Force Choke it, the Massassi initially seemed like it was in pain, but with a few grotesque movements of its neck, it somehow managed to break my Choke and charged me - I blew it away as quickly as I could and launched a few Lightning Strikes at it, but the beast didn't seem to be affected. I dragged a cover off of a sarcophagus and launched it at the Massassi, but the Massassi blocked it with its shield, nevertheless, I continued my onslaught - I was acutely aware that I was desecrating quite a few graves here but I'd rather not end up buried here among these ancient Sith - launching these heavy stone covers to tire out the Massassi as a cloaked Pernox slowly snuck up behind the Massassi - confident that the monster would block the covers before her strike and that I would stop once Pernox made her attack.

Pernox cut into the back of the Massassi's thigh, it screamed in pain and dropped its shield, I electrocuted it with Force Lightning as Pernox gave three deep slashes into its back before disappearing again - the Massassi lost its main defensive tool, it was bleeding from numerous cuts in its back, and we were both fine to keep fighting, but the Massassi wasn't done - it was a tough enemy, perhaps the toughest I've faced on Korriban so far - I was starting to think that maybe this beast was Force resistant, so I decided that I'd impact the beast with more physical objects rather than Lightning - the same way I got rid of the shield. I gathered the debris from the coffin covers with Telekinesis and battered the beast with it as it walked towards me - the wind and Force from my telekinesis slowing it down but not stopping it - the beast was stronger than me. The beast stabbed me in the right shoulder with its pike before I lashed out, blowing it away with a huge amount of Force Energy - it was thrown straight back into one of Pernox's blades. Pernox rose her blade and cut through the Massassi's chest and head, finally killing it.

I collapsed against the wall behind me due to my wound, deep and bloody, Pernox rushed over to me but she had no idea what to do - she was a fighter, not a healer, unfortunately, the same applied to me - however, I knew that Force users could heal, I didn't know how, but I rose my left hand to my right shoulder and thought about healing, I thought about my nerves coming back together, I thought about my blue skin healing, and soon enough, a deep purple glow came off of my hand and my wound slowly but surely healed itself. Finally, I dropped my hand and took a deep breathe, I had the Holocron, I slayed the beast, and it was time to become Sith, I stood up and stretched - my right shoulder popped into place and I felt better, finally. The Force could do amazing things and I could already do so much, I wonder what I'll be able to do in the future, once I learn from an actual Master, once I get to try more and more - and once I see and learn Force abilities that are completely unthinkable to me right now.

"We've done it," I sighed, so tired and so sore from constantly using my powers and from having raided three Tombs in one day.

"You will be Sith," Pernox simply said as we walked through the cave and exited to The Atrium, exposed to the night sky of Korriban above - four moons in the sky and countless stars - we quietly walked back to The Sith Academy climbing out of The Tomb of Tulak Horde, past The Tomb of Ajunta Pall, through the marketplace and up the stairs to The Academy, hopefully for the last time. Once again I turned right under the statues and banners as I pulled my hood down, I turned left inwards and then left again, until finally, I turned right into the little corridor with The Dark Honor Guards - I had navigated the vestibule - the Guards bowed before me but this time, I feel I actually deserved it, having defeated the Massassi mutant beast and done all I needed to in order to become Sith. I smiled when they bowed before heading into the main hall and walking up the steps to the second floor. I entered Vernache's office as I remembered that Pernox would remain outside The Sith Academy.

"Gl'ickeneose," Calenph greeted me, I couldn't remember if she had greeted me by name before, besides the introductions at the very beginning "The Holocron?"

"Right here," I handed over The Holocron, but Calenph didn't grab it, rather Overseer Vernache pulled it to her seated position behind the desk.

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," Overseer Vernache began "You journeyed into the depths of The Tomb of Marka Ragnos to learn The Sith Code, you proved you were the best of the current generation of acolytes to receive Lord Maurn's blessing, you completed a seemingly impossible task to open a chamber and retrieve its Holocron treasure from The Tomb of Ajunta Pall after a looter triggered an ancient trap, you served a member of The Dark Council to retrieve runes from The Tomb of Naga Sadow, and you survived two ambushes to claim Leekha Wasr's Holocron from The Tomb of Tulak Horde."

"Two ambushes?" I asked, the slaves and droids weren't exactly ambushes, they simply patrolled The Atrium, the only ambush I faced was The Massassi.

"Yes, the mutant Massassi shipped in from Yavin 4 and your very own rival, Seidoa Avarn," Overseer Vernache said that as if it were the most obvious thing in the galaxy.

"Seidoa never ambushed me," I confessed.

"Well then," Vernache began "It seems, Calenph, your chosen acolyte was too weak for The Tomb of Tulak Horde, she couldn't even survive a slave rebellion - I told you Gl'ickeneose was the closest we came to a worthy Sith in this class of alien filth,"

"It seems you were right," Assistant Overseer Calenph quietly admitted - the two Overseers had played favorites and the senior one of the two had won - part of me did wonder if I would've died without Pernox's help, but I'm confident I still could have succeeded, it simply would've taken longer and been substantially more difficult - especially the Massassi fight.

"In any case, you've clearly proven yourself the superior acolyte of your class, you have succeeded at every turn, you have survived every challenge, you have become Sith!" Vernache declared "Lord Thassite, your new master awaits in her chamber on the other side of this floor, she will present you with a Lightsaber, a set of robes befitting a Sith, rather than an acolyte, and with your next assignment."

"Thank you Overseer," I bowed before Vernache - but not Calenph, not only was she an Assistant Overseer but she had been cruel and against me the entire time I spent on Korriban.

"Now go, your Master awaits!" Vernache said as Calenph stayed refreshingly silent, with that, I left the office, hopefully to never return. I walked around the second floor, past the massive elevator up to a third story - The Dark Council Chamber - I felt a shiver from the amount of Dark Side energy up there, but curiously, there was a sliver of light up there - Darth Imperius perhaps? In any case I walked away from the elevator and continued onwards to the office of my new Master. I stopped outside the entrance - this would need to be the best first impression of my lifetime - I took a deep breathe, straight out my battered robes as much as I could, grimacing at the hole from where the Massassi cut me, fortunately The Force healed me without even leaving a mark. I mustered together a confident smile and sauntered into the office - I'd need to think on my feet here.

"Hello Apprentice," Lord Thassite stood in front of her desk, she was a red-skinned Twi'Lek with black tattoos down her Lekku - which she wore forward over her shoulders onto her chest, below the hood of her black and purple robes. The massive, multi-element pauldrons she wore on her shoulders showed she had a distinguished rank, she was a Lord of The Sith after all. An elegant, long black hilt with four prongs on either end was hooked to her belt, this was a double-bladed lightsaber, a deadly weapon - if Pernox was a Sith, she'd definitely use one of those.

"Master," I bowed before her.

"Where is your Kaleesh pet?" Thassite asked, I had to play it cool from her, thankfully my solid red eyes weren't particularly expressive.

"Outside," I calmly said the truth.

"Why?" she countered, equally calm, both of us giving each other an absolute Pazaak face, we could either be playing a very dangerous game or lightly bantering, neither of us could tell.

"What The Overseers don't know, won't hurt them," I boldly stated.

"Bold acolyte," Thassite laughed "Pernox, the fanatic, I'm familiar with her - don't worry, I know you're more than powerful enough for my purposes with or without Pernox, having her along is merely a bonus,"

"I concur," I played it off, I gave an internal sigh of relief that Lord Thassite didn't particularly care about Pernox's involvement in my Trials.

"Anyway," my Master changed the subject "Your dinky little Vibrosword is no weapon for a Sith, here," Thassite used The Force to toss me a Lightsaber off of the desk behind her, the weapon was textured and black, perhaps even carbon fiber, there was a single, red activation button in the center and three silver grooves above, with four prongs along the single blade emitter - it appeared identical to half of Thassite's weapon. I turned my left hand outwards so that the blade wouldn't harm anyone and suddenly, a deep purple blade glowed from between the four prongs and outwards from there, a beautiful, powerful, versatile, and light weapon, finally I could abandon the dead weight of the Vibrosword.

"Thank you," I turned off the Lightsaber and clipped it to the top of my lower robe.

"Those won't due either, you're not an acolyte anymore, those old and torn Academy robes are useless." Thassite gestured to a chest behind her and I walked over, opening it to find a set of black and purple robes identical to Thassite's but without the pauldrons. Thassite looked away as I changed into the new robes, now with purple boots, gloves, and a belt, the purple trim was in the form of stripes along my chest, up to my hood, and down the lower robe, they were otherwise black. I could now properly clip my Lightsaber onto the belt, these felt grander, more comfortable, and while I'm sure they'd still be uncomfortable in Korriban's heat, I wouldn't mind, for I'd be leaving Korriban _very_ soon. I left my torn Sith Academy robes in the chest, along with the dinky little Vibrosword. I walked back over to a position in front of Lord Thassite, a red-skinned Twi'Lek and a blue skinned Chiss, but with our matching robes, with our matching Lightsabers, it was clear that we were Master and Apprentice, respectively.

"Thank you," I told Thassite again.

"Well I can't have my apprentice looking like a mere acolyte," Thassite smirked as she walked back around to her chair and sat down "Now, to important business, have you heard of The Rakata?"

"Only as much as everyone else, they're the ancient Builders of the galaxy, now virtually extinct."

"Yes, they were the Builders, but more importantly, they could do more with The Force than even The Sith Emperor himself could've; before The Sith, before The Jedi, The Rakata used The Force to conquer the galaxy, to harness the power of stars, and to alter the very development of countless planets - likely even Korriban itself, as a Star Map lies within The Tomb of Naga Sadow - you and I serve Darth Imperius, you and I are servants of The Sphere of Ancient Knowledge, you and I will seek some of the ancient power of The Rakata!"

"How?" I asked.

"Simple," Thassite pulled up a map of an ocean planet from the Holoterminal of her desk "Manaan, one of the planets that The Rakata were particularly interested in, this planet is also the source of Kolto, meaning both The Sith Empire and The Galactic Republic have a presence there, so we must thread carefully. My agents have found evidence that on the ocean floor of Manaan is an ancient, Rakatan ruin containing a device called The Codex - a constantly self-updating omnipotent computer - nothing else like it exists, no one knows how it works, but if we can find this Codex, we can win the war with The Republic once and for all. Meet me on Manaan and we will find this ancient vault, we will open it, and we will use The Codex!"

"Amazing!" I was astonished by such a device, something that can know everything in the galaxy, something that can turn the tide of war - we'd know each and every Republic asset, the location of each and every Jedi, and we'd have the ability to tactically defeat The Republic without the careless bloodshed of the last two wars - this could end the war in a way that I'm comfortable with - minimal casualties and limited threat of future warfare.

"Amazing indeed," Lord Thassite began to leave "I'll see you on Manaan, Apprentice, take the shuttle to The Imperial Fleet and I've arranged for you to travel to Manaan on a Gage-Class Transport, come quickly,"

"I will Master." Now I was Sith, I survived Korriban, I completed my Trial, and now I was off to a completely new planet in completely new robes with a completely new weapon, I was a new me, reborn a Sith. I left The Sith Academy and gave Pernox permission to uncloak, the little Chiss girl from V'aran'abb could now be something glorious, the worshipful Kaleesh now had her very own Sith to serve, and we both were off to bigger and better things.

I walked forward onto the rocky cliff overlooking the lower Valley of The Dark Lords, despite Tukata, despite possessed slaves and troopers, despite rival acolytes, despite murderous droids despite massive K'Lor'slugs, despite a slave rebellion, despite a Massassi ambusher, and despite my Assistant Overseer betting against me, I had survived Korriban, I was incredibly powerful with The Force and I had a bright future ahead of me in The Sith Empire - I didn't need to be a Dark Side savage, even The Dark Council had a sliver of Light within it, I would be a Light Side Sith, I would be pragmatic, merciful, I would be good. I had a mission, I had a personal objective, and I had a Lightsaber. I grabbed the purple Lightsaber off of my hip and rose it to the sky, letting my power flow into it and a bright purple glow came over The Valley of The Dark Lords, everyone could see the newly crowned Sith raising her Lightsaber against the night sky.

* * *

Well here we go, that's the prologue, Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe completed her Trials and became a Sith, we finished our Korriban storyline and we're moving into Act I with the very next chapter. I'm happy with how this story is coming out and I hope you guys are enjoying it just as much as I am, this is a rather complex story with all the things I wanna accomplish here, with all the characters I have to juggle, and I'm very glad you guys are along for the ride with me. By the way, can you guys let me know if you think Gl'ickeneose is a Mary Sue? I want to convey how powerful she is but I don't want the story to suffer for it - we'll see much stronger enemies soon. I'm all for constructive criticism, compliments, or anything else you guys would like to tell me, so pretty please you guys, read, review, and enjoy!

So, as always, I love you all, peace out!


	6. Gilded Streets and Cold War: Ahto City

Alright Sith and Sithettes, it's chapter six! So, to recap, Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe was taken from The Chiss frontier world of V'aran'abb to Korriban against her will, she's learns The Sith Code from deep within The Tomb of Marka Ragnos, she learned more about The Force within The Sith Academy, she defeated Pernox in The Tomb of Ajunta Pall to retrieve a Holocron, the two met again in The Tomb of Naga Sadow when Gl'ickeneose was tasked with retrieving runes for Darth Imperius herself, and the duo, having formed an alliance, secured another Holocron from The Tomb of Tulak Horde, surviving an ambush from a Massassi mutant to complete her Trials and become the apprentice to Lord Thassite, an ambitious Twi'Lek Sith within The Sphere of Ancient Knowledge.

Now Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe and her new companion, Pernox journey to Manaan via The Imperial Fleet in order to rendezvous with Lord Thassite and begin a quest to find and open an ancient Rakatan Vault containing an ancient self-updating compact supercomputer called The Codex, but it's hidden somewhere on the bottom of Manaan's sea floor. All caught up? Good! Well, that's all I got, so here we begin the story proper, act one! I hope you guys are enjoying the story thus far, let me know! and, please read, review, and, most importantly, enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter VI.

Gilded Streets and a Cold War: Welcome to Ahto City.

* * *

Once again, I was in a shuttle.

This time, things were different, very different; no longer was I a scared little acolyte merely hoping to survive, now I was a Sith, now I had a Lightsaber, a Kaleesh cultist turned assassin, and, most importantly, The Force to protect me. I was strong now, I could do amazing things with Lightning, all the while Pernox would pick off my enemies under the cover of her Stealth Generator, we would be a deadly combination. I don't know if it was euphoria from having completed my Trials or I was more comfortable with my newfound companion, but I was happier now, more relaxed - even though I was certain that opening this vault would involve horrible and indiscriminate murder, and who knows exactly what we'd use The Codex device for? I hoped it would be used to earn a quick, merciful, and tactical victory, but The Sith are likely to use it to purge their own ranks - given my feelings on The Dark Side, I'd definitely be purged by the results of my own effort if my new suspicion was correct. In any case, the shuttle touched down within a hanger on Valken Spacedock, the principal travel nexus of The Sith Empire, and, with a hiss, the shuttle door opened.

I stood up in my new black and purple robes and left the shuttle, emerging within Valken Spacedock, the elaborate and supermodern space station orbiting Dromund Kaas - the capital of The Sith Empire was just below, a stormy jungle world ravaged by The Dark Side - Pernox joined me by my side as we scanned the hanger, full of fighters, bombers, and other ships, as well as their crews along with the staff, all of us standing in the shadows of more of the long, red banners of The Sith Empire. Other than the concentrations of life, there was nothing alive up here, just dark colored metal - on Korriban I could sense the constant vibrations of life - acolytes, Overseers, troopers, K'Lor'slugs, Tukata, the spirits of Sith Lords, and so many more forms of life, but here, just people, enclosed in metal nowhere near natural plants or life, just a sterile space station floating above Kaas City, escorted by some of the oldest and most respected ships in The Empire - meanwhile, the largest and newest ships of The Sith Empire were being deployed to the border worlds, preparing for this seemingly inevitable war with The Galactic Republic, our sworn enemy for reasons even I don't fully understand.

"From the glory of the ancient Sith to the glory of the modern Sith," Pernox said as we walked through the hanger towards the elevator onto the main deck of the space station. However, as we were about halfway through the hanger the elevator came down and opened, two men and a woman came out, the man in the middle was an armored, bald human, ravaged by The Dark Side, his red, high-collared armor marked him as a Sith, though clearly of a different fighting discipline than me - a Lightsaber rested on his hip. The two to his side were mere acolytes, dressed in the same kind of plain black robes as I was and carrying the same kind of Vibroswords, one was a human female and the other was a Sith Pureblood male. This trio was staring directly at us and approached us with haste - I feel that it goes without saying that this wasn't going to end pleasantly.

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe, Thassite's new apprentice!" the leading human laughed, a thick rasp to his Imperial accent. The trio began to encircle Pernox and I, not going to end pleasantly indeed.

"Yes, I'm _Lord_ Thassite's new apprentice, and you would be?" I stressed my Master's title, while I disagreed with The Sith, Thassite was my superior and I at least should respect her for allowing me to finally leave Korriban, even though it's merely to go to another planet, Manaan, and do another Sith scheme, only this time with the illusion of some power.

"I am a representative of Lord Kaull, and he does not approve of this growing impurity of The Empire - you, an alien from the edge of The Galaxy serving a slave! Not to mention this wretched skull-faced lizard leeching off of you!" Well it's amazing to see that The Sith Empire does indeed respect their one and only ally in The Galaxy, The Chiss Ascendency. I didn't know who this Lord Kaull is and frankly, he doesn't seem particularly relevant to my task for Lord Thassite, but these thugs of his definitely were an obstacle and I'd need to deal with them somehow, hopefully peacefully but if not, me and Pernox should be able to survive the battle, especially given these two were just acolytes. I'd figure out whether or not it's even worth my time to deal with this Lord Kaull later on.

"And these two?" I asked about the acolytes,

"Two of our pure and promising acolytes from Dromund Kaas!" acolytes from the world below, not from Korriban.

"Not Korriban?" I smirked, the most prestigious Academy of The Sith is the one on Korriban, The Academy where I trained and where I graduated from just yesterday.

"I can assure you, we'll prove our worth, alien scum!" the human female hissed.

"Well, let's do it!" the Sith human yelled as he ignited his red lightsaber and charged me, I quickly ignited my purple one and rose our blades together, but he was stronger and was soon pushing both Lightsabers towards my face, I needed to act quickly and decisively. With a stomp I blew the trio away, Pernox moved to fight The Sith Pureblood acolyte as I launched Chain Lightning, hitting both the humans with my purple electricity. The electrified warrior was not deterred and he threw his lightsaber at me, I quickly covered my face with my own and thankfully managed to deflect the attack, but he quickly pulled his Lightsaber towards me. Meanwhile, the other human attacked me, my Lightsaber locked with her Training Vibrosword and we were in a blade lock again, but my Lightsaber was stronger than her sword and my purple blade quickly melted through her weapon and I struck her down. Suddenly Pernox tackled me to the ground and I looked up to see the warrior thrust his Lightsaber into the spot where I was just standing, Pernox immediately rolled off me and I rose to my feet, now it was two against two and we were both back in the fight.

I Force Choked the warrior but, as a Sith himself he managed to break out of it before I was able to do substantial damage, nevertheless this gave me time and I dragged a crate from over near a Starfighter and I struck the human square in the back, he flew forward and I gave him a firm punch to the abdomen, I squirmed slightly at the pain but I quickly released an explosion of energy to blow him back again and I rose both hands to launch Force Lightning at him, which he deflected with his Lightsaber but everything he deflected I pulled back around and sent it right back at him, I began to march forward, using the pressure of my Lightning to overwhelm him, soon enough, it was too much for the human and he was blown backwards - a sickening sound rang out when his back hit the nose of a Starfighter, hard. While he was down and in pain, I finished him off with a quick and powerful Lightning Strike. Meanwhile, Pernox grabbed The Pureblood's Training Vibrosword with her bare hands and hit him in the skull with his own hilt, pulling her own double-bladed weapon off of her back and bisecting her enemy - I grimaced at this brutality but, at very least, the job was done. I smiled sheepishly when I noticed that the entire workforce of the hanger - even droids - were staring at the scene that occurred between us - though to be honest, I doubted that this public infighting was particularly rare between The Sith.

Pernox and I left the hanger and entered the very elevator that our assailants just left and we rode it up to the main level. The elevator traveled at a very quick rate before opening on the other side in the outer ring of Valken Spacedock, stairs lead up to the center directly ahead, or I could take stairs down on the left or right into other wings on this level, but I went directly forward to the main room, a circular chamber built around an elaborate holoprojector displaying four massive red Imperial emblems, lined up with the entrance halls, this grand display replaced a leisure center, including an iconic cantina, in what was part of a recent refurbishment so that the Space Station more closely resembled the interior of The Citadel on Dromund Kaas, the great crown jewel of Kaas City, and, by extension, the entire Sith Empire.

Various troops, officers, Sith, and even civilians were walked around this central chamber, this Space Station was a commercial and transportation hub, often acting as a substitute for Kaas City's rather distant and remote spaceport. We walked around the circular center and down the steps towards the elevator to Departures, where we'd board this Gage-Class Transport that would take us to Manaan. From what I knew of it, Manaan was the polar opposite of Korriban, rather than a rough and sandy rock, Manaan was a planet of endless oceans with a few floating cities where The Selkath - Manaan's native people and a neutral faction - would trade their precious Kolto - the primary healing substance of The Galaxy, any substitutes where too rare and too expensive to truly replace Kolto at this point in time - both The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire were huge buyers of Kolto, along with The Chiss Ascendency, The Hutt Cartel, The Exchange, and the other main factions of The Galaxy, meaning The Selkath were very rich and their floating cities were shining silver utopias. Yet, with The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire so close to each other on a planet with such a vital resource, I'm more than willing to bet that both galactic protagonists were making The Selkath even richer with all kinds of secret deals and off-the-books arrangements, greedy, unlike Kolto, was far from a rare commodity.

Finally, Pernox and I entered the elevator and rode it down to departures, the circular platform speeding down before finally opening, allowing us to exit to the departures wing. There was an airlock directly ahead, a window just to the left of it and the entrance to another hanger over to the left of that. Pernox and I walked over to the window and looked out at The Gage-Class Transport, it was in an extended trapezoidal shape with a towering bridge towards the rear, four large winglets extended outwards from behind the bridge: the longer down on the bottom and extending downwards, meanwhile the shorter two were on top and extended upwards, behind this must have been the massive engines required to move such a huge ship - and this was rather modestly sized by Imperial standards. Regardless of the vessel's relative size, it would be more than sufficient enough to take us to Manaan where we'd meet with Lord Thassite and finally begin this search of Rakatan technology for her.

So, we boarded The Gage-Class Transport and headed to Manaan.

* * *

Manaan, a beautiful blue orb, a place that didn't deserve to be molested by the presence of The Sith Empire, or even The Galactic Republic, who used the planet for the very same reasons.

As the Transport descended down to Manaan's surface, I finally saw Ahto City, a sprawling silver city, glistening in the sunlight. The city was built around a circular spaceport in the center and extended outwards, almost in the shape of a shell. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the ocean was entirely calm - not a single wave in sight, and a utopian city down below - Manaan was unlike anything I've ever seen before, compared to the frigid wastelands of V'aran'abb and the endless sands of Korriban, Manaan was a perfect world, calm and naturally beautiful. For these very reason, the same transport I was on was filled with Imperial tourists, politicians, and troops on leave - I was expecting this transport to be filled to the brim with active military personnel, bounty hunters, and other Sith, all trying to secure as much Kolto as possible, but perhaps, just perhaps, there were more slivers of light within The Sith Empire than just me and the faint presence of Darth Imperius, perhaps the billions or trillions of residents of The Empire were good too - maybe the evil was just from The Sith and people who had the misfortune of working directly with Sith on a day to day basis, such as high-ranking Imperial officers.

The Gage-Class Transport landed in The Sith Empire's spacious hanger within Ahto City's central spaceport and we disembarked, exiting the ship and joining the gathering crowd of passengers below an elevated platform, on this platform stood a tall human with a dignified expression, though he looked rather ridiculous given he wore a red cape and a bandolier over his Imperial Officer uniform, this was likely a Governor or some sort of lead representative of The Sith to Manaan, speaking of, behind him, dressed in what seemed to be judge's robes was a Selkath, a gray-skinned aquatic lifeform with a long face extending over their chest with twin tendrils hanging from either sound of their mouths. The Selkath were known around The Galaxy for possessing an incredibly annoying and unbearable language that sounded something like metal being crushed within a trash compactor - because of this, I very much hoped that the Imperial Officer would be speaking - something that I never thought that I would say.

"People of The Sith Empire!" began the human Imperial Officer "Welcome to Manaan's primary surface hub, Ahto City, home to The Sith Empire's Embassy here and our Kolto Refining efforts, The Galactic Republic also has an Embassy and Kolto Refining efforts here, because of the equal service to both galactic superpowers, and centuries of neutrality, our dearest friends, The Selkath, insist that you remain neutral, avoid conflict with Republic forces, and do not intrude on their Embassy, The Republic's forces have gotten the same warning from my counterpart. The Selkath provide security for all of Ahto City except the two embassy grounds, we ask that you keep all weapons concealed and do not provoke The Republic, should soldiers or citizens of The Galactic Republic provoke you, do not respond, inform a Selkath security guard. With all that being said, we hope that you enjoy your peaceful stay in luxurious Ahto City."

With that, the door out of the hanger opened to allow us to leave, The Selkath official evidently seemed pleased with our Imperial Officer's speech and once some of the tourists cleared out, Pernox and I began to leave, yet suddenly we were stopped.

"My Lord," The Imperial Officer bowed "I hope you enjoy your stay on Manaan, Lord Thassite requested me to inform you that she's waiting in her office in the east wing of The Imperial Embassy."

"Thank you Officer," I nodded before me and Pernox walked off, now thankfully knowing that we were indeed heading for The Embassy - the signs throughout the city directed towards each Embassy. I walked down a curving corridor with large tanks of exotic fish built into the walls, each labeled with a description about each fish within, what planet and what region they came from, many were from Manaan itself but others were imported from worlds such as Lehon or Mon Calamari, other significant sea worlds in the galaxy. Soon enough we turned left and I walked out into an open air section of the city, an elaborate plaza with a long fountain in the center leading down towards a marketplace, tourists, soldiers from both factions, and The Selkath authorities that we were warned about were littered throughout this area.

I decided to keep my hood up here, not necessarily because of the sunlight, more because of keeping up appearances, a red eyed Sith in black and purple robes with a Lightsaber on my hip was definitely a sight to behold, the innocent expression on my face and the mop of curly hair was not nearly as threatening - I didn't want to be threatening as a person, but as a Sith, I had to be threatening, I had to be at least slightly mysterious, and I needed to look the part, luckily, with the robes, I at least had the third one covered and as for the other two, well, I needed to work on that but I was evidently powerful enough to survive a fight with another Sith - it was just now beginning to truly dawn on me that I defeated and killed another Sith, not to mention I was fully responsible for killing one of the acolytes - not bad given I completed my last Trial two days ago, before my arrival to The Imperial Fleet and now again before my arrival here on Manaan. I was now a Sith, I was very powerful, and I could only wonder what the future would hold for me - nevertheless, I was rather excited about it, despite the fact that, unfortunately, this future involves the wretched forces of The Sith.

Once we reached the marketplace, chaos broke out, a Republic soldier punched an Imperial soldier in the face, the Imperial fell against a market stand, The Selkath behind the stand began calling for help in their overly guttural language. The Imperial pushed herself back up and the two started a fist fight, neither were holding back - I crossed my arms and merely watched, making it clear that I had no part in this - others gathered near us and watched themselves until The Selkath security finally arrived and shoved their way into the circle of bystanders, the Republic male was slammed to the ground and stomped on whilst The Imperial woman was grabbed by the neck and slammed face first against the table of the market stall. The Imperial Officer's warning was true, The Selkath were absolutely brutal in upholding their laws. The two security guards began yelling in their nasty voices, I couldn't understand them, but the people around us began to disperse, I took the hint and left with Pernox, heading in the direction of The Sith Embassy.

I walked under another roof to enter the corridor leading to The Embassy, a long and straight hallway with a security door at the end - it was opened as I approached and I saw The Sith Embassy. The massive silver structure of The Embassy included a towering spire and a curved roof extending over the east and west wings, which connected to the wall I just left from, this formed a long and wide courtyard on The Embassy grounds. In the center of the courtyard was a fountain with a statue of a Cyborg Sith Lord, there was a plaque on the base of the fountain. I walked over to the plaque and read it, learning that this was The Lord Scao Plaza, named for this Cyborg, who apparently reopened relations between The Sith Empire and The Selkath after an unfortunate episode a few decades ago where The Sith, quite predictably, attacked Manaan and tried to seize the Kolto for themselves, though Lord Scao smoothed over these bumps in the road and now both factions pretend as if the two factions have had a constant, amicable relationship since the Revan era, despite Darth Revan leading an entirely different Sith Empire, one realistically made up of Dark Jedi and Republic defectors.

The Sith clearly weren't trusting of Manaan's government, two turrets flanked the security door entrance and the grounds were patrolled by large Imperial war droids, the three entrances to The Embassy - the main entrance, the entrance to the east wing, and the entrance to the west wing - were each guarded by two Selkath Force-Sensitives, dressed in black and red robes and armed with electrified vibropikes - I wasn't sure if these were enslaved, if they willing joined The Empire, or if The Selkath agreed to hand them over, I didn't know, The Selkath's morality was questionable at best, given they were willing to sell Kolto to both sides in equal amount, they were at very least warmongers. Some black and red armored Sith Troopers were also patrolling the grounds - I'd assume that The Galactic Republic's Embassy was similarly well guarded, meaning both factions effectively had private armies on Manaan - this whole system was a house of cards waiting to collapse and I'd have to try my absolute hardest to avoid being the one to knocking over that house.

Pernox and I walked across the tiled ground of Lord Scao Plaza to The East Wing, where my master, Lord Thassite was waiting for us. The doors opened as I approached and The Force-Sensitive Selkath guards bowed - just like The Dark Honor guards had on Korriban - allowing us to walk into the elaborate lobby of this part of The Embassy - an ultramodern chandelier hung over the middle, with a circular reception desk directly below, behind them were massive bay windows showing the infinite expanse of clear water reaching up to touch the face of the setting sun at a distant horizon - Manaan was a beautiful world. The receptionist in the center was a human female - obviously The Sith would never allow an alien to represent them, they weren't even allowing The Selkath outside to train to become Sith.

The girl at the receptionist desk glanced up at us and panicked, clearly scared to see a Sith, I tried to calm her but unfortunately she must have mistaken me moving my hands as me about to shoot her with Force Lightning. She was screaming for help while I was trying my best to calm her down, suddenly, a door on the right opened and Lord Thassite walked out, upon seeing the display in the center she chuckled before waving her hand, the hysterical receptionist suddenly dropped to the ground with a thud - working for The Sith was certainly a horrifying profession, given with a wave of Thassite's hand she was knocked unconscious - and my Master's chuckle suggested that this wasn't the first time such an event occurred.

"Poor thing is scared of Sith," Thassite darkly chuckled "I've had this office for months and she's does that every time, I'm not complaining though, it amuses me!"

"Right," I squirmed, Thassite was both sickeningly sweet and sickeningly evil, it took a special kind of sadism to be a Sith Lord, a kind of sadism that I was glad I didn't possess, I didn't want to be a Sith and I surely didn't want to be a Sith Lord.

"Follow me," Thassite led me into her office, a spacious room with a desk in the center - currently the holoprojector on it was displaying a map of the sea floor of Manaan, containing ridges, massive man-made Kolto excavation facilities, caves, all kinds of sea plants, but the map was incomplete, after a certain distance from the excavation facilities, the sea floor map was blurry, rough, mere estimations of these other areas, perhaps these weren't discovered yet, perhaps The Sith weren't allowed to have a full map, perhaps The Republic were scrambling whatever devices The Sith attempted to use to map these areas, I didn't know, all I knew for sure is that this map had a suspicious lack of this Rakatan vault we were searching for.

"What is this?" Pernox asked.

"This is The Sith Empire's map of Manaan's sea floor," Lord Thassite began "As you can see, it's incomplete, that's because The Selkath refuse to allow us to have full maps, we were given this and told to work with it, we were also assured that The Galactic Republic got an equally sized map of different areas. We also know that other factions - The Chiss, The Hutts, and The Exchange in particular - have their own smaller maps of the surface, for their own excavation efforts. We'll need more than just our own map to find this Rakatan facility."

"Perhaps an arrangement with The Sel-" I began but Thassite interrupted me.

"We've already tried to work with The Selkath, they refused to give us any more maps - they must've thought we just want more Kolto, and we can't risk these damned fish learning of our operations." Lord Thassite and I clearly didn't agree on much, she was just another Sith Lord while I was a little girl from V'aran'abb who happened to have The Force and happened to be caught by The Sith and forced to become one, but we both seem to hold a rather negative - albeit accurate - opinion on The Selkath, who were indeed fish and were indeed a damned obstacle.

"So what do you propose, Master?"

"The Selkath won't give up their maps willingly and attempting to steal from them may put this entire operation in jeopardy, so the next best map belongs to The Galactic Republic."

"Won't The Selkath be angered at this?" I really didn't want to risk knocking down the whole house of cards that I was just thinking of.

"They won't find out," Thassite smirked "I have a mole within The Republic's Embassy, with her help, you should be able to infiltrate their Embassy and retrieve their map - you must be as careful as possible - do not get caught, do not tell anyone about this other than our new friend on the other side, and do not trip their security - this is a matter of upmost importance apprentice. Meet with our mole, Sergeant Rhyla Dershe, a young Mirialan trooper, I told her to be waiting for you in the Western Cantina, near the entrance to The Republic Embassy. Once you have the map, return here and we shall see if it is enough to find our Rakatan vault."

"Understood, Master," I bowed, accepting my task of raiding The Republic Embassy. Pernox and I left her office and walked out of the east wing of The Sith Embassy on Manaan, out into Lord Scao Plaza once again.

"The Selkath do not understand the glory of The Sith," Pernox complained "One day, we shall make them pay,"

"But not today, Pernox," I faced my Kaleesh ally, determined to keep the peace, at least temporarily "The Selkath control Manaan, perhaps with The Codex, the treasure of the Rakatan's vault, we can change that, maybe The Sith will one day rule Manaan, but today we need to work in the shadows, avoid The Selkath security, and get the map,"

"Very well," she huffed.

With that, Pernox and I left Lord Scao Plaza and The Sith Embassy to meet with our "new friend," a green-skinned Republic defector. I had to hope that she was sincere about being a mole, for all I knew, this was a Galactic Republic trap that Lord Thassite stumbled into, only being smart enough to send me instead - that would be typical Sith behavior, a Master should teach their apprentice, let the apprentice become as skilled as possible, but no, The Sith use their apprentices as tools, as mere pawns, until the apprentice learns enough on their own to betray and kill their Master, just like the shrinking of classes during Trials at The Sith Academy of Korriban, this was a self-destructive behavior, The Sith couldn't just allow for both The Master and The Apprentice to coexist peacefully, two powerful Sith cooperating, no, The Sith wanted The Master to use The Apprentice as a disposable tool, throw into an impossible task - if The Apprentice succeeds, great! if The Apprentice fails, no skin off The Master's back. I doubted Thassite would care if me and Pernox died in this task, it would be no more than a bump in the road for her, for the red-skinned Twi'Lek was a typical Sith in all but species.

* * *

So guys, I mentioned a while ago that I think of this story as a novelization of a Star Wars RPG, remember? Well, because of that, would you guys like to see side-quests as well? If so, I can begin writing another story which consists of side-quests from this story, such as one involving the tension with Lord Kaull, what do you guys think? Let me know!

Also, I hope you're enjoying the story so far, I'm very much enjoying writing it and I think that I'll be able to really get into a stride this summer as I'll have so much time to write and pump out weekly updates throughout, because right now I'm depending quite a bit on a healthy backlog, I'm actually writing this the day before posting chapter two - though that doesn't mean I won't edit chapters I've finished, please guys, if you have an issue, a question, anything, let me know, I am more than happy to respond to reviews and they'll improve not only the story, but hopefully your reading experience and even my writing experience - I really want this story to be a good one and I really want the five thousand plus words in each chapter to be meaningful to you guys, so please, read, review, and, please, enjoy!

I love you all, peace out!


	7. Lost Maps of The Primordial Seafloor

It's chapter seven time! Yay! Please read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter VII.

Lost Maps of The Primordial Seafloor of Manaan.

* * *

Pernox and I were to meet with this Republic traitor, Rhyla Dershe for an overnight raid on her own faction's embassy in order to retrieve their map of Manaan's sea floor, which Lord Thassite and I needed in order to find the Rakatan vault.

"Gl'ickeneose," Pernox began "If we are to infiltrate The Republic Embassy, perhaps it shall be best for me to enter alone with my stealth generator," Pernox had a point, she had stealth capabilities and I did not, I'd be a burden inside, sending in Pernox would be the safest option in ideal conditions, but what if she is compromised, I would need to infiltrate The Embassy myself and quickly rescue her before the incident could be reported, a task I suspected to be impossible, but I won't know for sure until I meet with The Mirialan defector to discuss the infiltration plans in detail - assuming, of course, that the whole defector story isn't Republic bait to draw Lord Thassite into a trap, with circumstances making me the unlucky fall girl.

"Perhaps," I mused as we returned to the marketplace, seeing the setting sun over the infinite seas of this beautiful, blue marble, unfortunately molested by the greed of The Sith, The Republic, and The Selkath alike "What do you think of Manaan?"

"A simple world, but a strategic one. The Selkath, however, are an obstacle," Pernox evidently had a very serious and militant mind, likely from a life spent either battling and training, or worshipping her apparent gods, The Sith - now including me.

We continued through the door opposite of the one leading to The Sith Embassy, this corridor led further around Ahto City, which would eventually lead us to the section of the city - The Republic Quarter - which contains The Western Cantina. Despite the name, The Republic Quarter itself is not Republic territory, not officially anyway, it just happens to be the section most heavily inhabited by immigrants from The Republic, mainly humans and Twi'Lek, but The Republic was quite diverse and I'm sure there's people of numerous species in that section of the city. The marketplace area is part of the area known as The Sith Quarter, but less Sith citizens chose to live on Manaan, most people were too poor or too criminalized to be able to immigrate here, and those that were rich and powerful tended to stick to Lord Scao Plaza and the rest of The Sith Embassy. I wasn't sure if it was due to mutual hatred or simply due to centuries of developing a certain lifestyle, but The Sith Empire's citizens were rather insular, they rarely left their few main worlds, rarely even going to the extent of their conquest - in fact, most people of The Sith Empire were actually people conquered and forced to become part of The Empire rather than actual loyal Imperial citizens.

Of course, this meant that The Sith Empire, as a population, wasn't particularly sustainable, the people of The Empire could unite against a common foe and blitz the enemy, as they did upon returning to The Galaxy, but as the war drags on, victories become rarer, and especially in periods of so-called peace, The Sith Empire immediately begins to decline, the people return to their personal interests, Sith betray each other in order to get more personal power, and The Imperial Military will have to fall in line with their Sith commanders. The Sith Empire were not a cohesive union of various peoples, they were an elite ruling class of humans and Purebloods, and then their subjects, with most aliens in shackles and the most exotic forms of sentient life were executed or banished, The Kaleesh being a notable exception due to their worship and cooperation. Due to these reasons, I think The Sith Empire will always lose a prolonged war with The Galactic Republic, but The Codex can make this a quick and vital war, and once The Sith Empire control The Galaxy, well, I can only hope that having a galaxy to govern - something The Sith have always wanted - will make The Sith somewhat responsible, if not, well then The Sith's control over The Galaxy will be short lived, especially compared to the millennia old Republic.

Now this is not to say that The Galactic Republic is perfect, The Galactic Republic is an overstretched and corrupt institution that tangles most of the known planets in a bureaucratic mess of red tape. The very notion of Galactic power is hard to swallow, Coruscant lies in the center of The Galaxy, hours away from Dromund Kaas even with hyperspace travel, to think both of these could be effectively and equally governed with equal representation is absurd, even more so when personal, corporate, and planetary interests clash with Galactic ones, is what's good for Alderaan truly good for the rest of The Galaxy? Often, it is not. Galactic governments, no matter what, will be overstretched - resources strained, finances insufficient, and proper governors lacking - and corruption is unavoidable, especially with thousands and thousands of inhabited planets requiring just as many governors and countless government positions below those governors, there's just too many people and too many obstacles in the path of an overarching Galactic government, that's why most of The Outer Rim is in Sith or Hutt Cartel hands, The Republic is simply incapable of governing The Outer Rim to the same extent as The Core Worlds.

In any case, the curving hallway finally released us to The Republic Quarter, I could immediately tell this section was more diverse because of a green-skinned Twi'Lek shopping at a stall manned by an old homosexual Ithorian couple - homosexuality isn't officially persecuted in The Sith Empire, not for Sith, humans, or Purebloods anyway, but with powerless aliens? Well, The Sith would hardly be tolerant of anything they do, just another element of their social double-standards. Unarmed Republic troops on furlough were all over this section - I suspected that the trooper who got into a fight in the marketplace was one of them - but the same tall, menacing Selkath guards that patrolled The Sith Quarter held the real authority here. Nothing was prohibiting me from being here, it was just another glistening ultramodern wing of Ahto City, one that just so happened to be populated by citizens from The Galactic Republic, the problem is, that it's populated by citizens of The Galactic Republic, one of which just got into a fight with a female Imperial - given that one: The Republic troopers already proved they were willing to hit a girl, two: I'm heading towards a cantina, where there will be quite a few drunken troopers, and three: I was a Sith, which, from a Republic trooper's perspective, made me no different than the vicious Sith who slaughtered their comrades, brothers, fathers, husbands, wives, idols, all over The Galaxy. Therefore, I was gonna do my best to keep my head down and avoid a fight.

The Western Cantina was right next to the exit of The Republic's hanger - the troops and spacers certainly didn't need to go far for their drink - so in order to get to the cantina, I'd need to walk past the group of furloughed Republic troopers, likely drunks kicked out of the cantina. To avoid hostilities as much as possible I walked with Pernox on the opposite side of the fountain as the troops - this wing was configured almost identically to The Sith Empire's wing - I heard an obscenity shouted out from my left - from The Republic group - but I ignored it, I kept looking forward and hoped that I could avoid hostility, I grabbed Pernox's arm because I could tell The Kaleesh was angry, she wanted to tear those troopers apart and I had absolutely no doubt that she could, but once again, I did _not_ want to be the one to send this fragile political house of cards crashing down - credit where credit's due, I'm amazed that The Sith haven't managed to ruin the situation on Manaan quite yet, I'm certain we've tried to steal more Kolto than we're permitted at very least - though, we may had attached many of our crimes to The Revanite Crisis about two decades ago, which transformed its machinations from subterfuge to direct conflict on Manaan.

I let out a deep sigh as I reached the end of the fountain and crossed over to the entrance of The Western Cantina, the automatic door open and I saw the interior, a lavish nightclub bathed in orange and red light, a sign on the wall said "A Slice of Nar Shaddaa" and I could see the influence of The Moon that Never Sleeps on this cantina, between the garish lighting, the elaborate chandeliers, the massive bar area filled with exotic drinks, and the red leather booths around the walls bordering a dance floor in the center. I personally hadn't drank before and I didn't want to start now, so between not drinking and this downright offensively gaudy design, I didn't want to stay here for longer than I had to, though, I noticed a silver protocol droid approaching me - I suspected he was some sort of waiter that was going to ask me about drinks, but I'll give it a listen anyway, perhaps this droid would help me figure out where this Mirialan defector is, Lord Thassite only told me that she was at this cantina, not where she'd be waiting or even when.

"Hello, I am S14MD2, you are Lord Thassite's apprentice, yes?" the Droid asked, a little too loudly for my comfort - I didn't need the whole cantina knowing that I was, one: a Sith, and two: meeting with a Republic defector.

"I am," I tried to steer the conversation favorably "I'm here to meet a _mutual_ friend,"

"Ahh," the Droid seemed to realize "Yes, I can show you our _mutual_ friend,"

Good, the droid managed to understand. He lead me and Pernox to a remote booth in the back, we quietly took our seats as the Droid scurried off, opposite of us, a green skinned woman dressed in a tank top and the white and orange pants from a Republic uniform, a very casual outfit, but one that didn't draw much attention in such an establishment - I could see at least three other women dressed about the same way in the various clumps of Republic troopers - she wore a holster on her hip and I was aware of the service pistol in her pocket, just as I imagine that she was very aware of the black Lightsaber blade on my own hip. Pernox sat silently to my right and I was aware that she was watching the Mirialan's every move, her distrust of The Galactic Republic was immensely clear and Dershe wasn't getting off easy just because she is allegedly defecting.

"Rhyla Dershe," she introduced herself.

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," I replied, Pernox remained silent.

"Alright," she leaned forward "I want 5,000 credits and a shuttle ride to Nar Shaddaa."

"Talk to my Master, I don't have the authority to do such a thing," I probably did have the authority to do it, but I had no idea how to and I wasn't going to deal with her demands, Lord Thassite can deal with the fallout of her plan.

"Fine," she sighed "But I better be getting paid for this!"

"Lord Thassite will make sure you're taken care of," When I said that, I didn't realize it sounded exactly like a veiled threat.

"Alright," she took out her Holo and used it to display a map of The Galactic Republic's Embassy "There's two ways I can see of getting your map, one is to simply use a stealth generator and sneak into the base, but this is risky, if you get caught, you're gonna have to fight, and if you fight, The Selkath will burn your whole operation to the ground, all depends on how confident you are in terms of sneaking in, avoiding security, and getting out before anyone notices."

"And the other option?" I asked.

"I design you a fake Republic ID and you play the role of soldier, again, this could be risky, it all depends on your ability to think on your feet, lie to security, and avoid tripping any alarms when you take your copy of the maps,"

"Alright..." I took a moment to think, one option is to risk Pernox and her stealth generators on the first option, though between her bloodlust and fanatical hatred of The Republic, I wasn't sure if I could fully trust her on this mission, I wasn't sure if I could trust myself with an infiltration but I'd rather risk myself than risk the life of my companion, especially when the mission can change the very course of The Sith Empire's future on Manaan, both options could easily lead to fights with Republic security and a Selkath crackdown, neither of which we could afford when The Rakatan vault and The Codex were here on Manaan - besides, I didn't even want to think what The Sith would do to me if I not only failed, but failed so spectacularly that I ruined the whole Empire's reputation on a whole world, a vital world to boot - I'd end up dead like all those rivals I outmaneuvered on Korriban, meaning all my work to survive my Trials, all my work to get off of Korriban alive would've been for nothing.

"I'll go in disguised," I told Rhyla.

"Alright, follow me," Dershe lead me into the bathroom, which thankfully was colored less garishly, plain white walls. She stood me against the wall with my hood down and took aim with her camera, snapping a headshot of me, she nodded and we walked back out, I pulled my hood back over my head and we returned to the booth. Rhyla pulled a device that looked similar to a Datapad out of The Republic backpack to her left. She transferred over her image to the device, typed in a few things, and suddenly, out of the side of the Datapad, popped out a Republic ID, containing my image, an alias, a date of birth - apparently Dershe assumed that I'm older than I really am, I'm only nineteen - and a few more basic Republic credentials, such as an ID number.

"You're officially a fresh soldier, you've been stationed on Dantooine since you've finished basic training, this is your first furlough, got it?"

"Got it," I nodded.

"Remember, you'll need to salute commissioned officers and speak with a Republic accent, you'll find the maps at the main computer, if you're caught, think quickly, come up with an excuse, from a Sith perspective, you're heading into the most dangerous place in Ahto City." She handed me a white and orange Republic casual uniform - a long sleeve shirt and the same kind of pants as Rhyla wore, as well as pretty standard black military boots.

"I'll be careful," I stood up and was about to return to the bathroom to change into the uniform she gave me, but Dershe stood me with her hand against my robe, over my thigh.

"Remember what we agreed on, Lord Thassite better pay up," Dershe threatened, given the aid that she gave, I really did hope that Lord Thassite helped her, so I gave her a sincere nod.

I entered the bathroom - Pernox following - and entered a stall, closing the door behind me and letting my Kaleesh companion wait outside. I stripped off my robes, gloves, belt, and boots and slipped on The Republic uniform - given I've worn robes since I came to Korriban, it feels really weird to be wearing proper pants again, a similar thing happened when I put on the shirt, I instinctively reached for a hood that wasn't there. The boots were heavier and more rugged than the ones I regularly wore - I wasn't off to a good start, I wasn't used to an outfit like this at all. I gathered up my Sith robes and handed them over to Pernox, along with my Lightsaber, there's no way I could explain how a rookie Republic trooper would have a Sith Lightsaber with them, or any Lightsaber for that matter - it's pretty much unthinkable for a regular soldier to beat a trained Force-Sensitive.

"Take these back to The Sith Embassy and wait in Lord Thassite's office, I'll be back as soon as I can be." I told her.

"I will," Pernox nodded and sincerely said "Good luck, Gl'ickeneose,"

"Thank you," I smiled at my companion and watched her leave, I waited alone for a moment - I had to make it somewhat more believable that I wasn't with Pernox - hopefully the drunks wouldn't put two and two together with a Chiss Sith Lord walking into the bathroom and a Chiss Republic trooper walking out, especially given me and Dershe walking in and out of the bathroom together a few moments ago - a sober and alert patron in the cantina could bring this whole plot falling apart, us meeting alone could bring this operation down, hopefully, the cantina was being used as a cantina and all The Republic patrons inside were too drunk or too careless to notice. In any case, with a deep breathe, I walked out of the bathroom, hoping to avoid this theoretical collapse of our infiltration operation.

Fortunately, no one seemed to care and both Rhyla Dershe and Pernox were gone - I was now entirely alone with nothing but a Republic uniform, The Force, and a mission - I walked through the cantina and exited the bar back to the silver streets of Manaan, now spectacularly lit up by the smooth, tall streetlights, various advertisements, and so many other lights, a rather beautiful city, but I knew that Ahto City had so many problems, the fragile coexistence between The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire, the brutal rule of The Selkath, and general greed over control of the Kolto supply. Luckily, the night gave me a bit more cover, it was dark, harder to less - the drunks would see me through their already blurry eyes on a dark street with the glare of lights behind me, reducing the chance of me being recognized as The Sith they saw earlier - though, I had to be aware of the red glow of my eyes and the fact that it alone could be enough to raise suspicion - The Chiss were traditionally Sith allies, not Republic ones.

I walked past the same crowd of drunken Republic troopers that I avoided earlier, this time I was on their side - red eyes and black curly hair exposed to the elements - granted, the curliness of my hair gave me some advantage, my hair was hardly menacing in appearance, especially when compared to my hooded Sith attire. I let out a deep sigh of relief when I finally passed the crowd, I made it past my first hurdle, but I had to stay on my toes, I'm certain that there would be many more hurdles to overcome - and I'd need to be able to full off a Republic accent if I somehow ended up needing to speak to a Republic soldier or officer, The Republic Quarter itself was the frying pan, and I was about to enter the fire.

I turned right again and followed the curving hallway to The Republic Embassy, this time, the security door didn't open, I looked to my left and saw an ID scanner - did The Republic embassy have better security? was this simply an element of both Embassies only activated at night? or did The Sith Embassy originally have the same sort of system before a Sith was angered by it and demanded that they change the system out of spite, I didn't know, but I had to try something. I wasn't sure if this was going to work at all but I pulled out the fake ID that Dershe made for me, I looked it over again - it looked solid and I had to hope it was functional, because there was absolutely nothing else I could do. I took a deep sigh, and nervously held my breathe as my left hand slowly but surely moved the ID to the scanner, I inserted the ID and waited a second that felt like hours, the whole operation depended on this and finally, just as I had hoped, the security door's lock twisted open and the two halves slid apart, opening up The Galactic Republic Embassy for me.

Rather than a menacing statue of a Sith Lord, the statue at the center of the courtyard here at this Embassy was a smiling female ambassador - near-human, I couldn't tell her exact species due to the golden color of the statue, but knowing The Republic, it could be virtually any near-human species, though population statistics meant that most likely, rather than near-human, this Ambassador was fully human. In any case I passed the statue and entered The Galactic Republic Embassy itself from the central entrance - I suspected that this door would be closest to the main computer, though I didn't know, I didn't even know where the main computer was at The Sith Embassy, so how would I know where the main computer is at The Sith Empire's Republic-owned mirrored building, little did I know the buildings were only mirrored on the outside.

I climbed the steps to the main entrance and opened it, entering the main receptionist area - it was after hours so most of the main lights were off and the actual receptionist was gone, though in the distance I could hear the footsteps of security guards patrolling the building. I quietly walked into the receptionist desk and looked at a map of The Embassy that she had displayed on her desk, the main computer was just on the other side of the wall behind me, but there was no direct way into that room, rather I'd need to enter one of the hallways on either side of this lobby - the same hallways where The Republic security was patrolling.

I walked over to the left entrance to the hallway and watched the security guard - an older, slightly overweight, likely veteran human, I suspected that he served on the frontlines some ten plus years ago before aging, getting out of shape, possibly getting injured in the field, and getting reassigned to progressively worse assignments, ending up here, but despite my imaginations of his background, the human security guard didn't stop patrolling, he simply turned left and walked down a long hallway. I waited until I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore before slipping down the first hallway, following it all the way down before turning right along with the rest of the hall, before turning right again through a security door into the room with the main computer. I could see the massive, record keeping computer archive on the other end of this room. I quickly rushed over to the terminal to access this computer, search through their records, and hopefully find these damned maps so that Lord Thassite and I could finally get to and open this ancient Rakatan vault, retrieving The Codex device.

The computer needed to scan an ID in order to log in, I quickly took mine out and read it, Ty'roe'va Phy'zen, that was my alias for this operation. I plugged in the idea and once again, it worked: I was in. I could see each and every function this computer could do, but I opted to start out with a smart one, I deactivated the cameras in this room - I preferred to do this with as few records as possible, I knew that we could be caught after the fact as well. So, the cameras were out, now I started searching the records - there were some pinned records all the way from three centuries ago about an incursion to the sea floor, venting Kolto, and something about a fish that The Selkath apparently worshipped: these were Revan's incursions on Manaan. The more recent pinned record was labelled Updated Sea Floor Map, I opened it and suddenly the Holoprojector displayed The Republic's slice of Manaan's sea floor, I quickly began downloading it to my Datapad - the same one from The Sith Academy, I was never told to return it.

"Soldier?" I turned quickly and saw one of The Republic security guards walk into the room, a human male shining his flashlight at me "What are you doing here?"

Luckily for me, I had turned off the cameras, nobody but me and this trooper would know what happened here, this gave me so much freedom to deal with him how I see fit. I could kill him, quite easily, whether it be by Force Choking the life out of him or a quick and fatal burst of electricity, this trooper could be lying on the ground dead with no one to see how he died or who killed him, his death would be a mystery. Alternatively, I could resolve this peacefully, I knew that Jedi and Sith alike were famous for their ability to influence, control, and even dominate the minds of others, I could use a Mind Trick to make this trooper leave the room and forget all about me, I could even have him distract the other guards, making sure I can escape easily, all without the cameras I deactivated seeing a damned thing, I could resolve this entirely peacefully - that would be how I'd deal with this security guard.

"You will leave the room," I spoke clearly and sharply, so that the security guard would understand in no uncertain terms.

"I will leave the room," he replied lazily, almost in a dazed state, eyes glassed over - I could only imagine what exactly the Mind Trick was doing to his dream, taking away his free will, twisting his memories, and even stripping him of knowledge - it was ethically questionable but it was better than murdering this trooper with Lightning or Choking.

"You will forget about this," I demanded.

"I will forget this," perfect.

"You will distract the other guards." I wanted to be sure that I could escape The Republic Embassy easily.

"I will distract the other guards," I had him wrapped entirely around my fingertips.

"You are dismissed," I ordered,

"I am dismissed," the trooper replied and he left to distract the guards, with no memory of what I did. I turned back to the computer and finished downloading the maps, I checked that it was on my Datapad, transferred it to my mobile Holoprojector - making sure it worked and I would be able to seamlessly transfer the data over to Lord Thassite once I returned to The Sith Embassy. Once I was sure everything was fine, I took the fake Republic ID back, backed away from the main computer, and destroyed it with Force Lightning, erasing any record of me being here. Satisfied with the destruction of the computer and my possession of The Republic's sea floor maps, I left The Embassy, I heard a commotion in the distance - my distraction was working - and didn't see a single guard as I returned to the lobby, walking past the empty receptionist desk once again and left the building, walking down the steps to the deserted courtyard once again. I left The Galactic Republic Embassy grounds quickly, but not suspiciously so, and I was glad to see that now since I was coming from the inside, the security door opened automatically and I walked through it, leaving The Republic Embassy once and for all.

The second the door closed I heard klaxons from within - The Republic must have realized that the main computer was destroyed - but I wasn't worried, the cameras were deactivated, I had the ID with me, the only trooper who saw me was Mind Tricked, and the computer itself was overloaded and destroyed, I had nothing to work about as I calmly walked through the curving hallway back to The Republic Quarter, walking past the crowd of drunken troopers and the fountain to leave from the other side and head back to The Sith Quarter, I made it out of the most dangerous part of Ahto City - from a Sith perspective at least - unscathed and survived to again walk through the marketplace. I saw Pernox standing outside of a public bathroom waiting for me.

"We don't have Sith credentials Gl'ickeneose, they'll only let us back in once they see a Sith at the door," Pernox told me about The Sith Embassy.

"Well, we'll be there momentarily, just give me my robes and Lightsaber back," I asked and Pernox handed me over my possessions, I entered the bathroom and changed back into my Sith robes, black, purple, and fairly comfortable actually, I preferred these to the heavy and uncomfortable Republic casual uniform, getting out of those heavy combat boots to enter my lighter, purple Sith boots. I attached my Lightsaber to my right hip - so that when I grabbed my Lightsaber with my left hand I could immediately activate it to cover my chest and protect myself from incoming laser fire or even other Lightsabers, this was started practice with sword fighting, developed long before Lightsabers, likely long before even Vibroswords, this was ancient custom, meant to make sure that pulling out your sword after the enemy didn't inherently mean defeat, also, quite frankly, it was more comfortable and less awkward than moving around the sword from behind your hand and rotating it one-hundred eighty degrees - I was hardly a sword fighter, but I could understand some of the theory, the discipline, and the history behind Lightsaber combat.

I tossed away The Republic uniform - making sure to grab The Republic ID, Datapad, and portable Holoprojector from that set of clothes, I hardly could afford to lose those when about to meet with my Master, and I figured that The Republic ID, a functional enemy ID, could prove to be quite useful in the future - now fully embracing The Sith appearance and being able to pull my hood back up again, I was very comfortable as I left the public bathroom and joined Pernox as we walked back to The Sith Embassy, where we'd meet with Lord Thassite and hopefully, finally be able to wrap up our work on Manaan and open this hidden Rakatan vault and use The Codex.

* * *

Korriban had five chapters but that's because I wanted the prologue to be shorter than any particular act, but longer than any other particular planet, so Manaan will be three chapters total, next chapter will wrap up the Manaan arc and we'll move onto the rest of act one. I hope you guys are enjoying this story so far, I'm kinda shocked that I've managed to write seven consecutive chapters while maintaining a healthy enough backlog to ensure I can continue upload even if I have a case of writer's block or an emergency of some sort, in fact, I've finished this chapter and am writing this author's note the day before posting chapter three, but keep in mind I'm not deleting any documents, even after posting them, I'm entirely willing to edit chapters after the fact if you guys need clarification or see a mistake, all you need to do is to let me know, so please, read, review, and most importantly, enjoy!

I love you all, peace!


	8. Interplanetary Secrets Within Our Reach

Chapter eight, we wrap up the Manaan arc. Read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter VIII.

Interplanetary Secrets Within Our Reach.

* * *

The Sith Embassy was comparatively well lit at night, I suppose that I should've predicted this, The Sith are always scheming, always committing power plays, and always making life worse for someone else, so of course The Sith wanted their Embassy to be lit at night - in fact, I imagined that many Sith opted not to sleep at all, always fearing that their apprentice would betray them at night and stab them in the back, because of course The Sith couldn't simply coexist with one another. Realistically, The Sith Empire is merely a loose union of independent warlords concerned only for themselves, the loose union existing only because The Sith hated The Jedi and The Galactic Republic more than they hated each other - Sith society depended on war, without it, we turn on each other and slowly but surely finish ourselves off, the longer I spent in the service of The Sith the more I thought that even control of The Codex, even winning the war with The Galactic Republic and ruling The Galaxy, The Sith would still be their own undoing.

I walked back into the east wing to present my map to Lord Thassite, hopefully these would be enough. I rolled my eyes - though it would be hard to tell that I did due to their solid red nature - when the receptionist again fainted. I walked over to the door and let myself into Lord Thassite's office. my red-skinned Twi'Lek Master stood behind her desk in her black and purple robes - they matched mine - with her black tattooed Lekku out of the front of her hood and hanging against her chest, she was looking intently at the sea floor map on her desk, but now there was something new, a large red circle near Manaan's south pole.

"Master, I have The Republic's maps," I told her.

"Excellent Gl'ickeneose," she smiled as I handed over the Datapad "I managed to convince The Selkath to give me some information as well, we now know the general location of The Rakatan vault, now, we just need to pinpoint it. With any luck, The Republic's map will reveal it."

I watched as Lord Thassite downloaded the data into her Holoprojector, the three of us - two robed Sith and a robed Kaleesh fanatic - watched as more and more sectors of Manaan popped out, suddenly much of the haze turned into clear and sharp data, but as more and more slices of sea floor popped up, I became acutely aware that the area with the red circle was entirely hazy, we had no idea what was there and as the last bit of map was downloaded, I realized that stealing The Galactic Republic's maps had been for nothing, we were back at square one.

"Damn," I said quietly, there would be more work to do.

"Don't worry Apprentice," Lord Thassite smirked, between these maps and the information presented by my Selkath informants, we should be able to figure out exactly what we need"

Again, Lord Thassite was typing away, trying to find the data we need, meanwhile I grabbed my Datapad back and slid it into my robes again. I watched the globe as Lord Thassite worked hard on her terminal, slowly but surely, we began to see borders. White lines appeared on the globe and divided the regions of the sea floor, I could see massive divisions of land reserved for The Selkath, but still nothing was being shown in detail, and none of these borders were near the red circle, yet, suddenly, a second set of borders appeared, three zones of the map converged on a point directly in the center of the red circle - it seems The Selkath used The Rakatan vault as a marker for dividing the zones - the zones were for The Chiss Ascendency, The Hutt Cartel, and The Exchange, the lesser factions of the galaxy, but the ones still important enough, large enough, rich enough to be able to need and afford a massive amount of Kolto, Kolto which only Manaan could provide and that The Selkath were happy to sell.

"So we found The Rakatan vault, how do we get there?" I asked.

"Not so fast Apprentice," Lord Thassite interjected "We know where the vault is, but we don't know how to approach it, what the dangers of the area are - I don't need you dying on the bottom of the sea quite so early."

"So then what do we do?" I avoided addressing the fact that Lord Thassite said 'quite so early,' I didn't feel the need to argue with my Master over such a thing, if I survive, I prove her wrong, if I fail, then I won't be there to see the fallout, but I still wanted to survive and I especially wanted to prove Lord Thassite wrong. I was well aware of the custom of betrayal amongst The Sith and I was well aware that eventually, Lord Thassite would betray me out of fear that I'll betray her - a Sith Master cannot tolerate his or her Apprentice being stronger than them, they perceive their own power as glorious and the power of others as a threat, so even though I had no intention to overthrow Lord Thassite, I knew that she was expecting me to stab her in the back as soon as I was powerful enough on my own, as soon as I learned everything I needed for her, and I needed to be ready for Lord Thassite to respond to a nonexistent betrayal.

"Go to one of these three Embassies - The Chiss, The Hutt Cartel, or The Exchange - and try to get their maps, we'll use them to route a way for us to get to The Rakatan vault via a submersible and open it."

"Understood Master," I bowed and left with Pernox, now tasked with going to ones of these Embassies and getting a map for myself, given the purpose of these sea floor maps - extracting the incredibly valuable Kolto - I doubted that The Exchange or The Hutts would hand over their maps willing, I'd need to steal those, once again without causing conflict, for The Selkath won't show mercy. On the other hand, I was acutely aware that I was a Chiss Sith, therefore, if I go to The Chiss Ascendency's Embassy, I'll have a common species as a point of connection between us, in addition to the simple fact that The Chiss were our allies, as long as we explain that this mission won't involve stealing their Kolto, The Chiss will most likely cooperate, so I decided that Pernox and I would go to The Chiss Embassy and attempt to peacefully acquire the sea floor maps.

"To The Chiss Embassy we go," I told Pernox as we left Lord Scao Courtyard and The Sith Compound, turning right to go to Ahto Central, the part of the city independent of both The Sith Empire and The Galactic Republic, being larger than both and circling around from the back of The Sith Embassy to the back of The Galactic Republic Embassy, the other three Embassies were significantly smaller and less significant - much like the factions themselves, when looking at a Galactic scale, The Chiss Embassy, rather than a shimmering silver courtyard and the massive surrounding building, The Chiss Embassy had no walled compound, merely a lavish but small building no larger than an office building, in any case, I was hopeful that The Chiss would cooperate and that I'd quite easily be able to get the maps, rather than needing to do favors or steal them - like I did from The Republic.

I left the curving hallway and exited in Ahto Center, now suddenly I was seeing far more civilian Selkath - I'm assuming that The Selkath and Sith had a mutual disdain for each other, given how quickly I've grown to hate both, despite being a Sith myself, fortunately at least I wasn't a Selkath, if I was a Force-Sensitive Selkath, I'd assume that I'd do nothing more than act as an Honor Guard for The Sith Embassy, much like the current fish do. I walked through this section of the city, acutely aware of the constant glances and whispers from the local Selkath, I didn't mind it and evidently Pernox didn't care or was respectful enough to realize I didn't want any trouble here, all we were doing is walking to The Chiss Embassy to have a talk and hopefully return to The Sith Embassy with the map to give Thassite and I our route within an hour or two, perhaps even less, given the act of actually getting the files off of The Galactic Republic's computer was just a few minutes and I had to assume that The Chiss Ascendency's computers were not too far off - perhaps even better, given that The Chiss Ascendency had less planets to rule, less people to govern, and therefore less places to distribute technology and resources - though I was hardly the expert on the state of Galactic technology, perhaps all of The Embassies on Manaan used the same type of Selkath computers, perhaps The Galactic Republic seriously did have an immense technological advantage over the rest of The Galaxy. The Sith Empire was very advanced militarily, their ships were state-of-the-art, the brand new Empress-Class Super Dreadnoughts were absolutely massive and dominant, even greater than the powerful Harrower-Class Dreadnoughts that they were supplementing, but outside of the military, The Sith Empire lagged behind - Kaas City, The Imperial Capital was a single city on a dark and stormy swamp planet while Coruscant, The Republic Capital was an entire planet covered in a city of trillions of people, buildings built atop of buildings, all miles upon miles high.

Finally, I saw The Chiss Embassy, a wide building with a tall spire below a supermodern open curving dome, The Chiss Embassy, while lacking its own compound was still incredible grand, standing tall and proud at the center of a plaza of marble and silver, sure, there were office and apartment buildings of the same size, but the white building with its intricate detailing - the blue ensign of The Chiss Ascendency proudly dominated the entrance to the building, from the lights around the building, I could only imagine how brilliant this building would look at night under the deep blue light - The Chiss Ascendency's colors were blue and white, interestingly similar to The Republic, known for using either blue and white or white and orange, rather than The Sith Empire, who were known for usually using a black, white, and red color scheme - though obviously, these colors were not exclusive, after all, Lord Thassite and I wore purple and black robes and my Lightsaber was purple, rather than the usual red of The Sith Empire.

As Pernox and I walked across the tiled plaza to The Chiss Embassy, I decided to lower my hood - I wanted to make it incredibly clear that I was also a Chiss and I didn't want to appear threatening either - I was well aware that I was depending on The Embassy staff to be playing identity politics, but given that I'm a Sith and could just as easily be going to the embassies of The Hutt Cartel and The Exchange and forcing them to hand over the maps, if not just stealing them for myself like I did with The Galactic Republic, this was hardly the worst thing I could be doing. I rested my hand on the door as I collected my confidence and quickly ran through the social norms drilled through my head as a child, I prepared myself to open the door when a thought occurred to me, I momentarily backed off from the door and turned to Pernox.

"Maybe you should wait outside, I want to deal with this as peacefully as possible," I wasn't sure if a Sith had ever seriously meant that they were going to do something as peacefully as possible before, but I meant it - these were my people and I was hardly one to start fight or endanger lives - I was also acutely aware of the fact that I was very far from the ideal candidate for a Sith, sure I was immensely powerful in The Force but I was compassionate, merciful, and pragmatic while The Sith were cruel, merciless, and vindictive - yeah, I was very certain that I was the one and only Sith to ever truly intend to do things as peacefully as possible, oh how very out of place was I.

"You're a strange one Gl'ickeneose, but very well," Pernox seemed to sigh but she was loyal anyway - for that, I was grateful, she was certainly a very good companion, even if we had started out as enemies back on Korriban in The Tomb of Ajunta Pall - wow, was that even a week ago? I have been so constantly working for The Overseers or for my Master, Lord Thassite, that I've completely lost track of time, but it felt like eternity, between the walking back and forth, the lack of sleep, the fights with looters, fellow acolytes, droids, Massassi assassins, and even my own fellow Sith on Valken Spacedock due to the apparent rivalry between that Lord Kaull and Lord Thassite and I. I would probably need to deal with that rival Lord eventually - my own taste of Sith infighting, hurray - but for fight now I just wanted to focus on my mission - finding and opening The Rakatan vault and using The Codex - rather than one of the many secondary adventures that I'm sure many Sith engaged in, for these allowed The Sith to grow stronger, fighting and learning from experience, allowed The Sith to begin building a power base - gaining control of various resources and earning meaningful, perhaps even powerful allies.

Speaking of allies, I was about to walk into a Chiss Embassy, this could be an opportunity to forge ties with my people and The Sith Empire's allies, perhaps even I could use that as leverage when talking to The Chiss here, I could promise them a working relationship - if they scratch my back, I can scratch theirs when the time comes, sure I'd owe The Chiss Ascendency a favor but they're me people, I didn't mind helping them, I certainly would prefer working for The Chiss Ascendency than The Sith Empire, though I hardly had a choice here. In any case, in order to gain these theoretical allies and these potential ties to The Chiss, I'd first have to talk to them, so I finally opened the door to The Chiss Embassy and walked in, my hood down and my curly black hair exposed - my hood and threatening Sith guise were gone, revealing my true Chiss innocence.

I walked into The Chiss Embassy and saw the equally lavish interiors - pristine white walls and a blue carpet over the white tiled floor - the entrance hallway opened up to a large central lobby, where a meeting seemed to be taking place. For a few moments, I hung back in the hallway and just observed, a couple of Chiss diplomats stood on the left near the desk, dressed in their white uniforms and stylish blue capes, another Chiss, a heavily-armed woman wearing an armored longcoat with a sniper on her back and a pistol on her hip, stood against the wall, scanning the whole room - she saw me and I saw her, but neither of us did anything, yet - a silver protocol droid was on the right, translating for the elderly Selkath judge standing next to it. Projected from the central holoprojector was the towering, shimmering blue hologram image of another Chiss, this one wore a white uniform under a blue cape, similar to the diplomats yet more distinguished, and the elegant blaster at her hip suggested both wealth and combat ability. I could already tell that, despite not being in the room, this woman on the holoprojector completely controlled the room - I'd wait and observe before making me entrance, all the while being entirely aware that the armed and dangerous Chiss against the wall was staring right at me, ready for my next move, despite the fact that my intensions were entirely peaceful.

"..and fourteen tons for the compound on Copero, that will be all Your Honor," The woman on the projector was talking to The Selkath about changes in The Chiss Ascendency's Kolto Orders, she spoke with a full Imperial accent, far more noticeable and posh than my frontier accent - similar to the Imperial accent, but not exactly the same. When the protocol droid finished repeating the order to the judge, the old fish simply nodded and the two left the room to go somewhere to the right, leaving the three Chiss and the interesting woman on the holoprojector, from her accent I could tell that she was in some way linked to The Sith Empire, and given her outfit was similar to the diplomats within this room, I suspected that she could even be The Chiss Ascendency's Ambassador to The Sith Empire, but I didn't know for sure - after all, why would an Ambassador to The Sith be negotiating Kolto orders with The Selkath? Retrieving the sea floor maps could wait a few moments, this scene at The Chiss Embassy very much interested me - the way she could pull the room, her accent, and maybe some hints so I could deduce exactly what her role was - I had a feeling that this would be very important.

"Any leads on The Sith?" asked the woman on the holoprojector - was she referring to me? I was a Chiss and I was here on Manaan, given I made no effort to hide that - other than the obvious disguising of myself for the operation to steal the sea floor maps from The Galactic Republic Embassy. I made eye contact with the armed Chiss, neither of us made a move to do anything - it seemed we had developed a sort of understanding: I wanted to observe this conversation and she was apparently interested in my antics, or perhaps she merely didn't have the chance to speak up given the conversation between the diplomats and the fascinating Chiss woman was going very, very quickly.

"Seen roughly an hour ago entering The Sith Embassy," the diplomat's information matched up with my reality, I had after all met with Lord Thassite not very long ago at all.

"I want tabs on her, one of our own amongst The Sith is perfect for our plans," I was now certain that this woman was referring to me, the timeline matched up and as far as I knew, I was the only Chiss Sith on Manaan - it would be quite remarkable if there were two of us here, so I was willing to bet that in terms of Chiss Sith on Manaan, I was alone. I was however, somewhat concerned, while I would rather work with The Chiss Ascendency than The Sith Empire, I would like to know exactly what I was signing up for - this Chiss woman evidently had plans for me, but what ever those plans? Did they want to use me to kill their enemies, did they want me as an ally? Perhaps they wanted both, perhaps she wanted nothing of the sort, maybe she wanted me captured and killed for whatever reason - but if that was the case, surely the armed Chiss staring at me would have done something by now? This woman had an Imperial accent and her scheming was equivalent to a Sith, she definitely had some sort of link to The Sith Empire, but what was it?

"Am I now?" I strolled into view with a veil of confidence, trying to take the attention off of the Chiss woman and onto me...so onto a different Chiss woman. I wanted to hold the power in the coming conversation - perhaps it would've been best to have come in wearing my hood, having the whole Sith appearance, but I chose to focus on the Chiss angle and switching now would be a sign of weakness, so there I stood, hood down, curly haired blue face exposed, and gloved hand resting on the hip of my black and purple robe - there is no way at all that I'd let my internal debate and insecurity show, now was a time where I needed to appear strong - I needed to show The Chiss that I'd be a valuable ally so that they'd hand over sea floor maps without much trouble. All the while I was scanning the room in case anything would go wrong - the diplomats were paying me upmost attention, the armed and dangerous Chiss against the wall stood up, less amused and more vigilant, meanwhile, the woman on the holoprojector wore a perfect Pazaak face - just like I was hoping that I was - this was definitely going to turn into a battle of personality, of charisma, and of persuasiveness.

"Well, well, well, welcome to The Chiss Embassy," the woman on the holoprojector began "I am Operator Vizen'ror."

"Operator?" I asked.

"Yes, much like an old holocall operator, I connect The Chiss Ascendency with valuable individuals, with a particular focus on The Sith Empire, so naturally, when we learned of a Chiss Sith on Manaan, we were very interested...but who exactly are you?" she asked.

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," I replied.

"What brings you to are humble little Embassy?" Vizen'ror dominated the room despite not being there, her glowing blue image was towering and her personality charming - this could very well be a dangerous façade to mask her deadly potential, I didn't know, but I had a feeling that I'd quickly find out, Vizen'ror wants me for her plans and is playing her hands close to her chest - her trailing off wasn't due to politeness, that was definitely phony, she was just telling me only what she wanted me to know, but she was trying to hide that - she was a very clever woman with sweet words but a dominant presence and the ability to effortless switch between her sweet and her dominant aspects of her personality - she reminded me quite a bit of Lord Thassite, but despite lacking The Force, Operator Vizen'ror seemed substantially more dangerous - and I had a feeling that this Chiss woman knew that very well.

"Operator Vizen'ror, my Master and I need information about the sea floor of Manaan, we would like a copy of yours," I requested as respectfully as possible - I knew now that I couldn't take the power from Operator Vizen'ror, she controlled this room through and through, so I'd talk to her like I'd talk to Lord Thassite, with a calm, collected, and nice voice - a submissive element of my personality, I lacked the confidence to directly challenge these authority figure - I doubted myself constantly and the guise a threatening Sith was hard to maintain when I didn't want the power of The Dark Side, I didn't want to be cruel like The Sith, I didn't want to crush those who would disobey my will; I wanted to survive, and while I'm at it, I'll do my very best to help make The Galaxy a better place - despite the fact that The Sith Empire would definitely disapprove of such things.

"With all due respect, my Lord, we need our Kolto supplies and then some," people outside of The Jedi and The Sith tended to refer to us respectfully, even if not technically correct - Sith were always addressed as Lord and Jedi were always addressed as Master Jedi, this was fairly confusing given I wasn't a Lord, my Master was, but that was just the cultural norm in terms of addressing Jedi and Sith, and I was hardly going to make the impossible task of changing this irrelevant tradition a priority - I had much bigger things to worry about, such as getting these damned maps - I wasn't going to take no for an answer, I'd do everything in my ability to make this Operator Vizen'ror hand over these final sea floor maps.

"We aren't interested in your Kolto, we're simply looking for something on the sea floor," I replied, entirely truthful - as far as I knew at least, with access to all these maps, Lord Thassite might well hand over the maps to a Sith higher up the food chain after she takes The Codex for herself, I haven't known Lord Thassite long enough to be able to fully predict her actions, but from the very beginning I've sensed her inner darkness - no matter what façade that Lord Thassite put on, I was constantly vigilant, I was worried that each and every next move of hers would be an attempt to kill me - I wasn't going to trust her, I quickly came to trust Pernox - perhaps that wasn't the safest choice, but it's worked out - but if I let my guard down in front of Lord Thassite, I very much doubted that I'd live to tell the tale: this is the apparent glory of Sith life, constant mistrust, constant vigilance, and not a single moment of real, comfortable peace.

"Oh?" Operator Vizen'ror was suddenly very interested "What is it that you're looking for?" Now, I could tell Vizen'ror what I'm looking for, but I had to imagine that this was a risky choice - what if The Chiss suddenly decided that they could take The Codex for themselves? I could do the usual Sith routine of threatening my way to what I want, but that risked fighting the armed Chiss woman in this room - I didn't know her capabilities and I didn't want to fight her - I know that some particularly powerful Sith could go as far as to Force Choke people from different ends of The Galaxy, I knew that I was powerful, perhaps even powerful enough to do such a thing, but I had absolutely no idea how to do so. Similarly, I wasn't sure if I could effectively do a Mind Trick across The Galaxy - who knows where Operator Vizen'ror is? Alternatively, I could use the ally card now, promising to work with The Chiss in exchange for the sea floor maps, so in terms of realistic options, I could risk telling the truth, I could threaten The Chiss, or I could propose the quid pro quo. I decided that the quid pro quo would be the best option here, especially given that Operator Vizen'ror had been looking for me.

"Sith business, nothing more Operator," I brushed off her question as quickly and confidently as I could and continued on before she had the chance to interject, it seems I'd be trying to take a little bit of control of this conversation from Vizen'ror as I could "In any case, we very much need your sea floor maps and I'm willing to bet that you could very much use my help, so I propose a quid pro quo - you give me the sea floor maps and, when the time comes, in the future, I'll return a favor for a favor - what do you say?"

"Hmm," Operator Vizen'ror took a moment to mull it over before addressing the armed and armored woman "Ty'rahl'ee, give her a copy of the maps,"

"Understood Operator," Ty'rahl'ee was likely Vizen'ror's personal enforcer, she spoke with a rather raspy voice despite her seemingly rather young age, I imagine that this was due to years of holding this position - I had a feeling that working for Vizen'ror was the type of job to result in personal injuries, between blaster fire, grenades, walking through smoke filled rooms, etc, etc. Agreeing to do a favor for Operator Vizen'ror could very well have been a dangerous decision, but it got me the sea floor maps and a relationship with a very powerful woman within The Chiss Ascendency who could prove to be an incredibly valuable ally in my future endeavors - it seems that I was building my own powerbase after all.

"Thank you Operator Vizen'ror," I gave The Chiss woman a bow after Ty'rahl'ee handed me over a chip containing the sea floor maps.

"No, thank you," Operator Vizen'ror smirked "I'm sure you'll be returning the favor soon enough,"

Yes, this offer could be something I come to regret indeed, but I had no choice, at very least, I had the important thing, the sea floor maps. I plugged the chip into my Datapad and downloaded the maps, once I succeeded, I returned the chip to Ty'rahl'ee, nodded at the various Chiss in the room, and pulled my hood up as I left The Chiss Embassy. It seems that, in the end, both Vizen'ror and I had gotten exactly what we wanted - for better or worse. In any case, finally having everything I needed, I left to return to Lord Thassite, now truly possessing the last element I needed to get down to The Rakatan vault so that we could open it and get ourselves The Codex - who knows what my Master would have me do after that.

In any case, we finally had the sea floor map, so it was time for Pernox and I to return to The Sith Embassy.

* * *

"Master," I said as I walked into Lord Thassite's office "We have The Chiss sea floor maps,"

"Excellent," she downloaded the information from the Datapad and suddenly, the area around the red circle - the area around The Rakatan vault - was revealed, an incredible rocky, beautifully varied, and completely alien surface unveiled - V'aran'abb and Korriban were the only worlds I've been on before Manaan, neither world had oceans: V'aran'abb had snowy mountains and plains of permafrost, Korriban had rocky mountains and valleys, I suppose Manaan's sea floor could be compared to Korriban, broadly, but unlike Korriban, Manaan's surface was literally the inversion of an arid wasteland - Manaan's surface was beautiful, full of life, and completely covered in ocean - the silver island, Ahto City, being the only element of Manaan above the infinite blue expanse of water - even then, Ahto City was entirely artificial, almost like a scar of sentient life across an otherwise unscathed, naturally beautiful world - The Selkath built this scar to sell their Kolto across the galaxy, to factions without morals or righteous cause - The Selkath only wanted their money, they didn't care how this was affecting The Galaxy, they say credits and they took credits, regardless of the cost.

Suddenly, in front of the three of us - Pernox, Lord Thassite, and I - the computer mapped out a route for us, we'd go from Ahto City through a part of the sea floor reserved for The Sith Empire, our submersible would lower and lower steadily as we crossed the border into The Chiss area, continuing to drop slowly but surely - we didn't want to be overwhelmed by the underwater pressure - before finally docking against The Rakatan vault - I didn't know what we'd do next - would the vault be filled with water just like the rest of the ocean - therefore meaning we'd need underwater suits - or would The Rakatan vault somehow be cleared of water? I was hoping for the latter, but I had to doubt it - then again, The Rakata had incredible amounts of technology, they were able to build this desirable device we're looking for - The Codex, an incredible device that could track anything and anyone apparently, a miniscule supercomputer, a miniscule supercomputer that could change the course of Galactic events forever.

"This, my apprentice, will be our route!" Lord Thassite exclaimed as she downloaded the route to her own Datapad, before ushering us through The Embassy to a lower level, we were heading for the submersible dock. The submersible was small and black, with two bright light mounted above and a cabin for two - though a large cabin, an individual seat could easily fit three of me - why were they so big? I turned to Lord Thassite when my question was answered. Lord Thassite put a massive Environmental Suit on over her robes - I followed suit, putting it on, it was immensely heavy thing, and my vision was obscured by the thick and tinted visor. There were only two suits and two seats in the submersible, this meant that Pernox would have to stay behind here at The Embassy.

"Goodbye Pernox, I'll see you on the other side," My voice was rather distorted but I think my Kaleesh ally got the message.

"Till we meet again, Gl'ickeneose - good luck," She replied, seeming to smile underneath her traditional Kaleesh skull mask.

"Let's go apprentice, The Codex awaits," So Lord Thassite and I boarded the black submersible seats, suddenly, the seats which had seemed so large when I was outside were uncomfortably small - the Environmental Suits were incredibly slow, clumsy, and awkward - fortunately for me, Lord Thassite was piloting the vessel, I was merely a passenger. I heard the clamps holding up the submersible release and felt the craft fall into the water with a splash, the twin headlights on the roof activated, shining blinding light throughout the room. The submersible sank below the surface of the water and backed out of the submarine dock, the vessel turned around and we were out into the ocean proper - suddenly the blinding light of the headlights now barely illuminated the water ahead - darkness ahead and eerily silent water all around - the ocean wasn't as welcoming from below, now the crystal clear, calm blue water was a dark and deep abyss. This environment was downright terrifying.

Things got a little bit brighter as we escaped from the shadow of Ahto City, now some of the fascinating life of Manaan was revealed. I saw completely alien fish, things even more alien than the exotic fish in the tanks built into the walls of Ahto City's central spaceport, as we slowly but surely lowered deeper and deeper, I could see glimpses of the colorful coral covering the sea floor - wondrous shades of pink, orange, and even colors I didn't traditionally associate with coral, blues and greens - beautiful seas of coral below the beautiful seas of water. As we got deeper and I could hear the outer shell of the submersible begin the feel the effects of the deeper ocean pressure, the ocean life got larger, more diverse, and even menacing - including Manaan's infamous fearsome Firaxa Sharks. I didn't know when we'd cross over into The Chiss zone - perhaps we already had, I didn't know the speed of this craft, our exact distance from The Rakatan vault, or even quite how large Manaan was, but I could feel the almost overwhelming Dark Side energy of something down here - The Codex.

Soon enough, we finally reached The Rakatan vault, the submersible's headlight illuminated a massive stone building built on the sea floor, utterly covered in coral, barnacles, and other markers of ocean exposure - this building has been sitting down here for millennia upon millennia, this made the ancient tombs of Korriban look brand new in comparison. Lord Thassite circled around the building searching for an entrance, we couldn't let this whole mission be for naught, we needed to get in and we needed to get The Codex. Finally, we found a clean stone section of the wall, a sharp contrast to the otherwise nasty and aquatic building - I wanted to use The Force to sense what was inside but I couldn't, the power of The Dark Side here was completely overwhelming.

As we approached the clean stone wall, it completely slid open, revealing a small chamber - Lord Thassite tentatively inched the submersible forward into the chamber, as the submersible settled in the middle the wall closed behind us - we were trapped. The water drained out of the room - this was an ancient airlock! Soon enough, the room was entirely empty of water and the opposite door opened, revealing yet another chamber. It seemed the pressure suits weren't necessary after all, so Lord Thassite and I immediately shed off those heavy and cumbersome suit, dressed back into our black and purple robes as we walked into the next chamber, a large stone room with massive statues of The Rakata themselves - The Rakata were fish too, scaly skin and eyes mounted on stalks to the side of their heads, a very alien appearance - all in all, this particular chamber reminded me quite a bit of those four Sith Tombs that I spent so much time on in Korriban, working for The Overseers to become Lord Thassite's apprentice, yet now, a mere few days later, the red-skinned Twi'Lek was now to my left as we explored this underwater ruin deep below the surface of Manaan's oceans.

On the opposite end of the chamber from the airlock was a massive door with four deep keyholes, each one was directly below a basic drawing, seemingly indicative of whatever planet the key was on. I took a deep sigh, all the work on Manaan was to find The Rakatan vault and get The Codex, so we found The Rakatan vault, our goal seemed to be complete, all we had to do was go down to the vault and get The Codex, then coming to Manaan, infiltrating The Republic Embassy, and promising to serve The Chiss Ascendency in exchange for their maps would all have been worth it, but of course not. Lord Thassite and I had gone one step forward and four steps back - all we need to go on now were four rather simple drawings. The first drawing was of a series of sand dunes, the second, a chain of islands, the third was a towering glacier, and the fourth drawing seemed to have been of a couple of trees, but the drawing was vandalized - scratched and seemingly exed out, The Rakata had left us three riddles to solve and one of them was damaged - leaving Thassite and I with even more work to do - wonderful.

"Sand dunes..." Lord Thassite mused "The Rakata were known to have had a presence on Tatooine."

"And the islands?" I asked.

"Lehon, The Rakatan homeworld, is known for its archipelagoes," Thassite replied, looking as intently at the drawings as I was "The glacier is a hard one to say, my instinct is to say Hoth but I don't know of any link between The Rakata and the ice planet. The trees however, imply Kashyyyk, though with the drawing being vandalized, I can't say for sure, I'll need to do more research on Rakatan artifacts to try and pin down those last two worlds."

"And what about the first two worlds?" I asked.

"I'm willing to say that its Tatooine and Lehon, so when we return to the surface I'll arrange for you to get your own ship so I may deploy you there, we need these keys apprentice, and we need them now."

So Lord Thassite and I returned to the surface, to Ahto City, as I realized that I was now saddled with a new mission.

* * *

Pernox and I entered a hanger at The Ahto City Spaceport, we were tasked with retrieving the first two keys from Tatooine and Lehon, meanwhile my Master would work to track down the final two so that by the time I had the first two, I could be dispatched the retrieve those final two keys. Given that Tatooine and Lehon were far away from Manaan, as well as the secrecy of this operation, Lord Thassite provided me with a Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor, a large and elegant state-of-the-art starship designed to serve the needs of The Sith. The vessel had a triangular profile with two long triangular prongs extending forward, separated by a deeply set circular cockpit, the engines on the back were built rather subtly, below a pair of small navigational flaps - two on either side in an over-under configuration, the entrance ramp was at the rear, between the engines leading to a central corridor above. The ship was long, black, wide, and sleek, a one-story vessel known for its intelligent and spread out floor-plan, and especially for its incredible speed and sizable armament for its size, The Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor was generally viewed as the best ship in its class, and I was now the happy owner of one.

Inside, I turned right, walked forward, and then turned left, where the ship opened up to a large and wide central room. The whole interior of the ship was designed around the usual Sith colors - black and red - and this room itself was largely open and empty, other than the central holoprojector. Ahead of me, opposite of the entrance to the ship was the entrance to the cockpit, and the captain's quarters was built to the left of the holoprojector, with an entrance doorway built along an angled wall, opposite of that, separated by a wall to the entrance hallway was a small medical lab. To the left of the central room was a little hallway, I walked over to it, on my left was the crew quarters and on the right was a meeting room, with multiple chairs around a long central table. I crossed back over to the right of the central room, directly ahead was an escape pod, to the left was the cargo hold, and to the right was the engine room. The starship was nicely configured, simple but effective with all the necessary elements, I liked it.

I'd call her _The Black Shadow_.

* * *

OMG LONG CHAPTER!


	9. Crime Lords and Sand Dunes: Tatooine

I usually begin and end with an author's note but last chapter I didn't really have a closing note, the chapter just turned out being so damned long - even after I cut a few things I had planned for it - that I didn't want to make you guys read more, that chapter was 7,110 words long, wow, I really wanted to just go ahead and wrap up Manaan, so yeah, sorry. In the future I'll try to stick to my 5,5000-ish words per chapter, anyway, with this chapter begins the Tatooine arc! Hope you read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter IX.

Crime Lords and Sand Dunes: This is Tatooine

* * *

It felt amazing to be able to sleep in a proper bed after all that time in an uncomfortable Academy bed - I hadn't slept since Korriban, given the infiltration of The Galactic Republic took up my one and only night on Manaan - _The Black Shadow_ was a wonderful ship, she'd suit me well, just as her kind had for so many other Sith. I left the black and purple robes in a footlocker reserved for laundry - I'd take care of that later, for now, I realized I had a whole closet full of different kinds of Sith robes - Lord Thassite had been generous it seems. I grabbed the first set of robes and put them on. The top wasn't much more than a hooded purple brassiere given my midriff and arms were exposed, the globes helped cover up my arms, but most of them were still exposed. The purple lower robe was traditional in design, as were the boots, and the belt came with a large triangular buckle that pointed upwards to my navel. These robes weren't particularly modest and I questioned their ability to actually protect me, but they were Sith fashion - for whatever reason Sith women tended to have little reservations about showing skin - and given Tatooine was an incredibly hot desert, hotter than Korriban even, I could see how these robes would be beneficial - though I still hoped that most of the robes that my Master had left for me were more modest, otherwise I'd cling to those black and purple ones.

I clipped my Lightsaber to my hip and lowered my hood - it was dark enough in this vessel - as I left the captain's quarters stretching. The hyperdrive let off a low, constant hum, but nothing too obtrusive. I walked over to the crew quarters to check on Pernox, but based on the unmade bed, she had already gotten up - she picked the bed farthest from the door, I imagined that she liked the security of having the wall against her back, this way she'd be safe in case of attack, it almost amused me how paranoid and vigilant she could be. I walked over to the cockpit and sat down in the left seat, the navigational computer sat between the pilot and co-pilot's seats, outside the circular cockpit window the view was rather heavily obstructed by the twin forward prongs, but I could still see the beautiful blue, streaking patterns of hyperspace - the distortion of light from all around The Galaxy. The journey would be a fairly long one, Tatooine was in the Distant Outer Rim while Manaan was on the edge of The Galactic Core, Lehon would be even farther, given The Rakatan homeworld was deep in The Unknown Regions, across entire The Galaxy from Tatooine. Hard to believe that despite having spent my whole life prior to about a month ago on the world of V'aran'abb - a cold and poor rock on The Chiss-Empire frontier - then I had gone to Korriban, the most treasured world in The Sith Empire, even more important than their capital of Dromund Kaas, Korriban was the origin of The Sith race and culture, after that, Manaan, a cosmopolitan world and The Galaxy's only source of Kolto. Now, I was heading to Tatooine, a desolate desert planet and a true frontier, the world was utterly lawless, The Republic didn't control Tatooine, nor The Sith, The Hutts, The Exchange, and other criminals did. Lehon was largely abandoned, a few of The Rakata remained on the planet and both of The Galactic superpowers maintained small outposts there, especially after The Revanite Crisis, but compared to The Galactic norm, Lehon's entire population was negligible.

"Hello Gl'ickeneose," Pernox came in and sat down in co-pilot's seat, she was dressed in a set of fresh black robes with thin purple pinstripes, this gave us a slightly more cohesive look, despite being inside, she opted to keep her hood on "What's the plan on Tatooine?"

"Lord Thassite told me to contact her once we reach orbit," my Master only knew as much as I did when Pernox and I left Manaan, so she wasn't able to give me instruction, but while we were fast asleep on route to the desert world, she was wide awake on Manaan, researching everything she could on Manaan - I wouldn't even know where to start, we assumed that we needed keys, but where exactly were the keys? What did the keys even look like? Perhaps there weren't even keys at all, maybe we'd need to activate some sort of ancient terminal - I did that in The Tomb of Ajunta Pall, where less than a week ago, Pernox and I meant as enemies, yet now we sat about two feet away from each other in the cockpit, content - we were a rather odd pair. Pernox was a hardened Kaleesh assassin with an advanced stealth generator and an intense, fanatical worship of The Sith, while I was a mere Chiss girl gifted - or perhaps cursed - with The Force, I'm able to do incredible things with Lightning, I'm able to control the thoughts of the weak-minded with the classic Mind Trick, and I could prevent a sentient being from breathing - the first and last thing a person does, the most basic and involuntary of actions - without even touching them with the power of Force Choke, I was incredibly powerful with The Force and because of that, I was forced to be a Sith - all this power and I couldn't even decide my own destiny, there was absolutely no reason for me to go to Tatooine other than to serve my Master and her schemes.

Suddenly, I could hear the hum of the hyperdrive stop, the blue streaks disappeared, and I saw Tatooine, the little tan rock below. Korriban was a desert world as well, but not in the same way as Tatooine - Korriban is a rocky, mountainous desert while Tatooine is known for endless smooth dunes - Tatooine was also significantly hotter due to lower altitudes and oppressive heat from the twins suns. I rose up from my seat with another stretch, making sure my robes looked as good as possible, Pernox following - she grabbed her double-bladed vibrosword from off of the wall where she had apparently left it. The two of us walked out to the central room and gathered around the holoprojector, I walked up to the keypad in front of it and contacted Lord Thassite, returning to a position farther back and standing somewhat more confidently as I waited for my Master to reply - I didn't want to look weak in front of my Master, especially given that The Sith were known for betrayal and elimination of the weak - but I had a feeling Thassite wouldn't bother trying to kill me yet, not until we had the keys or whatever exactly we were looking for in order to open The Rakatan vault. Once we have The Codex, then I need to begin worrying about Lord Thassite betraying me, until then, for better or worse, I was useful for her.

"Apprentice," Lord Thassite finally answered "Have you arrived on Tatooine?"

"Yes, we're in orbit," I replied.

"Good, I have a lead on the key." Lord Thassite began "Karvora The Hutt has put together an auction for a Rakatan artifact from his palace on the edge of the Northern Dune Sea, I believe that this is our key, but The Hutt has been vague and has not responded to my attempts to contact him, so we shall show him what happens when you resist The Sith Empire. We have a small settlement in the area, Mos Evenha, go there and meet with Major Par Zen'wa, a brutal Quarren that we unleashed upon the region, we'll be absolutely delighted to help you raise hell. So go, my apprentice, go to Tatooine and show Karvora what it means to defy The Sith, crush his forces, ruin his business, and do everything necessary to get an audience with him, and once you do, force him to hand over The Rakatan artifact. Once you're done, journey to Lehon and contact me on arrival, understood?"

"Understood," I bowed before Lord Thassite as her image shimmered away, she was clearly preoccupied with her research given she gave me the entire set of orders for Tatooine at once, but I didn't mind, I'd have more opportunity to do things my way, maybe instead of exclusively attacking Karvora's forces, I could liberate his slaves, I could disrupt his operations with the Spice trade, and I could save business from his extortion - disrupt his protection rackets - and I could raise hell while staying on The Light Side of The Force, because I had a feeling this Major Zen'wa, who even Lord Thassite, a Dark Lord of The Sith, considered brutal, would guide me in a direction miles away from my comfort zone. In any case, I had my mission, Pernox and I would journey to Mos Evenha and learn Karvora's weaknesses from the Quarren Imperial Officer.

I prepared _The Black Shadow_ for a landing in the Imperial occupied village of Mos Evenha on Tatooine so that Pernox and I could deal with this Hutt

* * *

The ship landed on an old and rusty landing pad in the village, nothing more than a handful of mound-shaped huts - the largest of which being a cantina - and a large tent used by The Imperial Military's local garrison. This little town had maybe thirty people living in it plus another twenty for the garrison, a miniscule settlement that must have only existed due to the various moisture vaporators around town, as on the horizon, I could see absolutely nothing but sand dunes and some of the massive trapezoidal Jawa crawlers, this was The Northern Dune Sea.

The heat was immediately oppressive and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky to provide a brief break from the constant glare of the twin suns - one large and yellow, the other smaller and red. I was somewhat grateful that my robes provided a few openings from the occasional gusts of wind, on the other hand, I had a feeling that a sandstorm would absolutely tear my midriff and arms apart - the airborne grains would shred my exposed skin as if I was standing inside of a sandblaster - I had to be careful here, but hopefully I'd be able to resolve these issues rather quickly, if not, well, I needed to hope that I could do something with The Force to shield me from a sandstorm. I could blame these robes, but they had benefits in terms of heat and, depending on the severity of a sandstorm, the grains could tear apart my robes anyway. I was seriously hoping that I could avoid this problem all together but, despite all that I've learned about The Force so far, I don't know a way to outright stop the winds that cause sandstorms.

Right now however, there was no sandstorm, just a tent for me to enter so that I could get on with my mission here. Pernox and I walked across the sandy, unpaved ground of the village uphill to the black tent emblazoned with the red ensign of The Sith Empire, I could feel my purple boots sinking into the sand and leaving a trail of footprints in my wake, climbing up the hill to the tent, yet unfortunately, when I reached the tent I couldn't hear any voices from inside, I couldn't hear footsteps, I couldn't hear anything hinting at any troops being here. When I walked into the tent, I could see the same story - none of The Imperial Soldiers were here, they must have been out on some sort of mission, nevertheless, I walked through each and every room of the tent to try and find anyone I could talk to - a soldier that was injured or on leave, a member of the noncombatant staff like a cook or a janitor, but I wasn't having any luck, empty room after empty room, but finally, at the end, I walked into the command center and found a protocol droid, excellent.

"Where is Major Zen'wa?" I asked, the droid was evidently startled but it quickly turned around and answered me.

"Oh, hello my Lord!" the droid had feminine programming "Unfortunately, Major Zen'wa and his forces have left to go on a counterattack against the Sand People, they have been raiding this settlement as of late."

"Do you know where?" I sighed, as usual, my mission ha become unnecessarily complicated.

"No my Lord, he left in a hurry."

"Well who would know?" I was getting a little bit ticked off at this point, I had to promise I'd commit a favor for The Chiss Ascendency to find The Rakatan vault, but when we actually sunk to the bottom of Manaan's sea floor and reached the vault, we found that not only was the vault hidden under the sea, but its contents were hidden behind a wall that required four keys, which means I needed to get four keys - one of which is implied to have been stolen, or perhaps even destroyed, who knows for sure why the Kashyyyk key was crossed out? Perhaps the key was destroyed and we'd never open up the vault to get The Codex - and now, on my search for the very first key, The Hutts had gotten to it first, so I needed to anger Karvora The Hutt and force him to reveal where he's keeping this Rakatan artifact that he's trying to sell, but I couldn't even do that, because Lord Thassite only told me what to do to Karvora's forces, not where to find them - for that, I'd need to talk to this Quarren, Major Zen'wa - but of course, Major Zen'wa couldn't simply be here at Mos Evenha, he'd have to be out somewhere in The Northern Dune Sea hunting after some Sand People whilst Pernox and I were stuck here in his tent trying to grill a damned clueless protocol droid for any scrap of information that _could_ lead me to this Major that _could_ help me get Karvora's attention. This was just a wonderfully complex and wonderfully uncertain quest just to open this Rakatan vault and find some rumored device, The Codex - what if the ancient device was nothing more the crumbled, ancient dust? Who knows what lies beyond that door, perhaps the chamber is flooded and The Codex has been corroded away, I certainly didn't know, but that didn't matter, because now, I've become a Sith, now I need to serve Lord Thassite, my Master, on whatever whim she's currently on, just wonderful!

"Lieutenant Shallev Warres may know," the droid finally opted to share something relevant "But it should be noted that Lt. Warres was dishonorably discharged yesterday for excessive drinking, gambling, theft, grand larceny, multiple cases of extortion, several bar fights, possession of illegal Spices, accessory to murder, first degree murder, and loitering!"

"Just," I took a deep breathe, frustrated with that shrill, mechanical voice listing the Lieutenant's absurdly long rap sheet "Tell me where he is?"

"I suspect he is at The Cantina, he usually frequents the place, drinking, gambling, and..." I didn't care to here the droid continuing to ramble on and on about this Lieutenant, I didn't particular care about his morals, after all, I was a Sith and worked with them, Sith murdered and tortured others with absolute glee, if the Lieutenant decided to drink and gamble, it was his choice to make. Personally however, I didn't want to be inebriated, nor did I want to lose my credits, so I wouldn't drink, nor would I gamble, but if Warres could help me find Major Zen'wa, then I could care less what he wanted to do in his free time, because what I needed to do was to find this damned key to open The Rakatan vault on Manaan. So, after leaving the droid to its moralistic rant, Pernox and I left The Imperial tent to walk back down the hill to the large and central dome-shaped building labeled cantina, the little watering hole in the middle of this little Imperial occupied town of Mos Evenha at the edge of The Northern Dune Sea.

I entered the cantina and walked down the steps, I grimaced as the dingy bar smelled of smoke and booze, I looked around the room and saw various aliens across the booths and gathered around the central circular bar. This cantina was nowhere near as elegant or flashy as the Nar Shaddaa themed cantina in The Republic Quarter of Manaan, no, this bar was much cheaper, much more gross, but no less popular to its patrons. I tried to breathe as little as possible as I walked around the central bar until I finally noticed who I was looking for. A large and rowdy group were gathered around a Pazaak table - various aliens and humanoids alike - but it was very clear who was winning, the very man who I was looking for. A human male sat with the most chips, winning big, we wore a heavy black duster coat over his Imperial Officer's uniform, including the Officer's cap that he wore on top of his bearded head. All the people at the table other than him and a orange-skinned Twi'Lek dancer in a bathrobe had busted out, the game was now one on one, but in the end, the Lieutenant had won, he pulled the chips to him as almost everyone at the table cheered for him. Warres stood up with a cheer but the Twi'Lek dancer yelled at him in Huttese and the sleazy Gamorrean next to her - her boyfriend I'm assuming stood up and reached for his blaster - and he dropped dead, blasted throw the chest and head twice in rapid succession when Shallev pulled one of his twin blasters from one of the two holsters sitting low on his legs. The long and scoped, elegant silver blaster gave off of a triumphant trail of smoke as the Lieutenant pulled the blaster to his lips and blew the smoke away - he thought himself a charming ladies man, I rolled my eyes, I rejected quite a few of those back on V'aran'abb, all over The Galaxy you can find a cocky spacer with some fancy moves and a quick draw, but oh well, at least this one was supposed to know where Major Zen'wa was.

"Lieutenant Warres?" my voice rang out as the man walked out of the booth - he was an Imperial Officer but he dressed and acted like a spacer, no wonder he had such an immense rap sheet, he turned, at first looking somewhat angry, but when he saw me, he seemed a bit taken aback, perhaps even impressed - I'll just go ahead and assume that he's impressed that he's seeing a Sith, not a pervert impressed over my appearance or anything like that - suddenly I was once again self-conscious in these damned revealing purple robes, why exactly did Lord Thassite decide to give me revealing robes? Was it just a temperature concern? If she went so far as to believe that I'd be so worried over the heat here on Tatooine, surely she would've also thought about the sandstorms. Was she attracted to me? I didn't particularly think so, besides, if she was, she wasn't even here to see me. I didn't know why I had these robes, what I did know is that other female Sith decided that these kinds of revealing robes were fashionable and now, perhaps because of that, I was here on Tatooine, in a cantina dealing with a degenerate Imperial Officer while showing more skin than I'm comfortable with.

"Oh, a Sith," he straightened up a bit and tried to look confident, but I could sense there was fear within him - and why wouldn't there be? The Sith were absolutely brutal to their own soldiers, often causing more harm to the troops under their own command than the troops of The Republic or whatever hostile force that The Sith Empire was fighting at the time "Listen, I'm not a fan of this 'My Lord' crap, what's your name, Sith?"

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," I told him, Pernox opted not to introduce herself.

"Great, Shallev Warres," he sighed, seemingly somewhat annoyed "Well, what is it?"

"Listen, I'm looking for Major Zen'wa, it seems he and his entire garrison had left without a trace - their droid told me that you may know, do you?" I gave him a brief run-down of the situation and asked the important question.

"I might," Warres seemingly regained some of his confidence "But I might wanna know why you're looking for him more,"

"So it's going to be like that?" I asked, somewhat stand-offishly, hoping that I could scare him into revealing the information without going as far threatening him, but to no avail "Fine, Karvora The Hutt has an ancient artifact in his possession that my Master and I need, however Karvora isn't responding to us, so I need to get his attention - I need to raise hell, and I'm told that Major Zen'wa has the information I need in order to do just that."

"Well, well, well," Lieutenant Warres was suddenly very interested "Raising hell to get at Karvora...I'll tell you what, that old alien bastard fired me, but you know what? I'll help you save his sorry ass from that mess he's gotten himself into with the Raiders, I'll even help you screw over Karvora's operations. All I ask in exchange, is that once we're done with all that, you help me get off this rock - so what do you say?"

"Very well," I shook the Lieutenant's hand and agreed to his offer after briefly mulling it over - he was offering help, he knew where the Major was, and he seemed to know the lay of the land, Warres would be a valuable ally for the time being and it certainly wouldn't be difficult to get him off of here and onto another planet - maybe he'll even be satisfied with being left on Lehon - if that's the case, I won't even have to go out of my way for this favor - this was hardly a bad deal, from my perspective, it was an easy task, _The Black Shadow_ had plenty of room, this favor wasn't something I was gonna be particularly worried about. The favor to The Chiss Ascendency I promised in exchange for their sea floor map back on Manaan had me way more worried, after all, I promised a favor, nothing specific, just a favor, so if Operator Vizen'ror decided that the sea floor map was equivalent to me having to steal a capital ship for her, then the circumstances meant that I had promised her a capital ship. So, I may have owed Lieutenant Warres a favor all of a sudden, but I didn't owe him anything major, oh no, that particular honor went to The Chiss Ascendency.

"Alright, you got yourself some speeders?" he asked, it was at this point where I realized that The Northern Dune Sea was really big, really open, and really, really hot - of course we wouldn't be going on foot.

"I have a ship," I had to hope that the ship would be good enough.

"See, here's the issue with that, once we get to The Sand People's camp, we'd have to land your ship - you see your trail of footprints? Your ship is a hell of a lot heavier than you are, it'll sink in the dunes. So, unless you want to dig your landing gears out of the sand, we'll need some light, fast speeders. Come on, there's a dealer in town, owes me a favor."

I followed Lieutenant Warres out of the cantina and followed him over to one of the small huts around the perimeter of the village, there was a small awning off of the front, covering a little Toydarian and five identical speeders he was selling - they were long, one seat, white and dark blue speeders - they were nicer than I would've expected from a dinghy little vendor here in Mos Evenha. I saw Warres take the Toydarian aside - I caught that the little flying blue creature was named Riggo, I also noted that his grasp of Galactic Basic was somewhat lacking - I took the opportunity to observe the speeders more closely, they were a couple of scorch marks on some of them - these were stolen in a struggle - and, the interesting bit, the speeders all had a defaced emblem of The Chiss Ascendency - not only were these stolen, they were stolen from my new allies, The Chiss Ascendency, perhaps this could be a bargaining chip.

"Gl'ickeneose!" Warres called me over "He wants one-thousand credits per speeder,"

I took the chance to quickly check my Datapad - Lord Thassite had transferred ten-thousand credits to my account due to my efforts on Manaan, she was likely aware that such events could occur to me - so I could simply purchase the three speeders for the three-thousand credits that Riggo The Toydarian had asked for, however, I was intelligent enough to identify that the speeders were stolen from The Chiss Ascendency, my new allies, so that gave me another option. As always, I was a Sith, so I had the options of simply threatening Riggo into handing over the speeders, or simply killing him and stealing the speeders, but these two Dark Side options were firmly against my established morals. I didn't want to pay The Toydarian for speeders, especially since the scorch marks could mean they're damaged, but I needed the speeders and I didn't want to be the typical Sith and threaten or kill my way to what I want, so, I decided to go with the option I discovered for myself - The Chiss Ascendency angle.

"Riggo, how did you get these speeders?" I asked him directly, speaking in a slow and measured tone - I was aware that it was indirectly threatening, but given I don't intend to outright harm him, I could rationalize to myself that this approach wasn't inherently Dark-Sided, nor inherently Light-Sided, rather this option was somewhere in between, a neutral option.

"What?" he was definitely caught off-guard "I build them myself! They are for sale!"

"I can see the scorch marks and I can see that you desecrated the emblem of The Chiss Ascendency - I have some very good friends among The Chiss, I don't like that you're stealing from them,"

"Fine, you caught me!" I wasn't sure if Riggo was scared, stupid, or both, but he crumbled almost immediately "Take them, I want no trouble with Chiss!"

"Very well," I smiled as Pernox, Warres, and I took the three speeders in the best condition and left Mos Evenha, Warres leading the way through The Northern Dune Sea, heading for some distant, rocky mesas - I had to assume that The Sand People's camp was there, after all, the area was somewhat sheltered from the sun, easy to defend - rather than guarding a full perimeter, The Sand People only had to guard the areas between the mesas - as we neared closer and the mesas got clearer through the haze of heat, I was able to distinguish that there were three mesas in a roughly triangular pattern - so, a relatively well shaded and defendable location in the otherwise merciless dunes, this must've been their base, and given how defended it seemed to be, I was getting more and more worried over The Imperial garrison - what will I do if Major Zen'wa was already defeated and killed? I didn't know, but no need to speculate quite yet, the three of us were getting closer and closer to these mesas and soon enough, we'd have our answer.

Up and down, up and down, up and down the dunes as we got closer and closer to The Sand People's base, finally, as we got closer, I could hear blaster fire, I could hear The Sand People yelling and screaming, and I could hear Imperial accents barking out orders - The Imperial garrison was very much alive and fighting, so the three of us sped up on the final approach - fortunately, the mesas were in a bit of a small clearing of the dunes, we curved up hill until we were just outside of the crude fence between two of the mesas. Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I got off of our speeders and prepared our weapons - Pernox grabbed her double-bladed vibrosword, Warres grabbed his two large, long, scoped blaster pistols, and I ignited my purple Lightsaber - The Imperials were stuck in battle and, as it turns out, we're the cavalry coming to the rescue.

With my Lightsaber in my left hand I walked into The Sand People's camp, The Imperials were literally pushed against the fence by Sand People snipers up on top of the mesa, I quickly rose my right hand and hit the Tuskan Raider with a quick Lightning Strike, I turned to take down the other two as Lieutenant Warres gunned down the other snipers with his scoped pistols - granted they were scoped, but I was still quite impressed that he managed to succeed at out-sniping not one, but two snipers at the exact same time with a single hand on each blaster. The other Tuskan Raiders attacked, now, some staying back and blasting at us, others charging with their traditional canes - one charged directly at me, I cut through his cane with my Lightsaber and into his chest, killing him. I took out a firing line with a Force Storm, killing roughly five of them. In the corner of my eye I could see Pernox popping in and out of stealth as she cleared out the huts. The Imperials gained the advantage and we quickly finished off The Sand People. I deactivated my purple Lightsaber and clipped it back onto my belt as the twin suns began to set on Tatooine behind us - we were victorious.

"Burn their huts, salt their farms, destroy anything you see!" I was confused to see Major Zen'wa speaking Galactic Basic, but I quickly figured out why, the yellowish skinned, squid-headed Quarren had a collar around his neck - a translator, as I continued to listen to him barking out his brutish orders, I started to here the slight mechanical distortions to his voice, confirming my suspicion. He wore a standard Imperial Officer's uniform without a cap - Quarren had very irregularly shaped heads, pointed on the top and extending outwards. I watched in silence as the Major's soldiers burned The Sand People's village to the ground - I suppose that I could've stopped them, but why would I? The Sand People were savages who attacked Imperial and Republic installations on sight indiscriminately, they killed people and perhaps even ate them, and their language seemed to be nothing but savage howls and screams, besides, all The Sand People had already died, there was nobody to save. Still, I regret that I didn't do anything to stop the monster that was Zen'wa, but at the time, I needed his help to find Karvora The Hutt's operations so I could stop them and draw out the fat slug to get the first key to The Rakatan vault.

* * *

Alrighty then, another chapter down, another arc began - chapters ten and eleven will also be on Tatooine and after that, we'll have another three chapter arc on Lehon (also known as Rakata Prime) then we'll move onto the second half of act one. I'll try to make sure that all four of these act one planets have a different feel to them and that it doesn't come across as super repetitive, please let me know what you think so far! Please continue to read, review, and enjoy!

By the way, I'm writing this chapter the week after seeing Solo: A Star Wars Story, which I thought was awesome, hope you guys enjoyed that movie too, I thought it was rather good! Anyway, that's all I got!

I love you all, peace!


	10. Karvora The Hutt's Operations

Alright, middle of the Tatooine arc, hope you guys like it! Please read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter X.

Karvora The Hutt's Operations.

* * *

The whole village burned.

The battle was long enough - The Sand People had gained the upper hand before Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I had arrived - and everyone else in the village had been entirely devoted to murdering our Imperial forces, but still, the utter brutality from Major Zen'wa and his soldier was downright appalling, torching their huts with absolute glee. In any case, I did nothing, I just stood there, in my purple robes, patiently, waiting for the Major to notice me - once he had, I'd get my information and be able to finally get Karvora the Hutt's information, destroying his businesses and making him regret wronging The Sith Empire - he'd hand over The Rakatan artifact in his possession - which, hopefully, was indeed the key that Lord Thassite and I suspected it was. As I waited, I looked over at my companions - Lieutenant Warres was pacing about a little, smoking yet another death-stick, seemingly his personal bad habit...I hope he wouldn't do that on my ship, though according to the arrangement we had, he wouldn't be on _The Black Shadow_ for long. Pernox sat down cross-legged on one of The Sand People's rugs and observing one of their ceremonial staffs - she was looking intently at each and every detail engraved on the long stick - I respect her research and curiosity, even if I personally don't put much value into Sith or Sand People cultures.

"They're powerful warriors, smarter than they seem," Pernox told me, apparently having noticed that I was looking at her "The Kaleesh, my people, are a powerful race of warriors, The Galaxy has many that we can learn from - including these Sand People - but the strongest race in The Galaxy, the greatest culture of them all, greater than The Kaleesh, or The Mandalorians, or The Sand People, or anyone else, is The Sith Empire. In our short time together, Gl'ickeneose, I have noticed that you're prone to mercy, you pursue the peaceful route, and you disapprove of brutality - some may say your actions are not befitting of your current position - but I know better than that, you are a Sith, and I am grateful for the privilege of being able to travel with you, to observe first-hand as you rise from a mere Acolyte to now a Sith Apprentice, to potentially much, much more in the future."

"Well, thank you Pernox," I meant it, truly - while we didn't quite agree on The Light verse Dark Side argument, we were still an excellent team and she was still an incredible companion to have "I'm grateful for your company too, you're an excellent warrior - great help in a fight - and I'm certain you'll grow even greater - especially if you keep researching all these warrior cultures, their fighting styles, and their weapons."

"I will," Pernox nodded before packing up the ceremonial staff and standing up - she was substantially taller than myself and even slightly taller than Lieutenant Warres, but she was also fairly thin, not quite lanky, but definitely not a brute - she had more of a statuesque figure. Speaking of, Shallev had evidently finished smoking and come to join us as the Major gave his men a field debrief. The three of us had been a great help to The Imperial garrison and turned a narrow but certain defeat into a convincing victory. Sure, some may argue that three's a crowd, but I on the other hand believe it to be ideal to travel with two companions - one alone can put us at a disadvantage while having three or more companions is rather excessively, especially when considering transportation and other logistics would be getting a bit stretched beyond simply sticking with a trio in the future - besides, if others were to join us on our journeys, they could simply wait on _The Black Shadow_ until they were needed, but for now, it was just me and Pernox, serving Lord Thassite to open The Rakatan vault on Manaan - along with the seemingly temporary addition that is Lieutenant Warres.

"My Lord," I turned to see Major Zen'wa finally meeting us, he bowed before his, yellow tendrils hanging off of his face, loosely covering the translator built into his neck - The Sith Empire had reluctantly become more tolerant of aliens lately, but were no more tolerant of alien languages - The Quarren wanted to serve The Empire? The Quarren had to speak basic, The Quarren physically couldn't? Then he needed a translator, as simple as that - there was no compromise when it comes to aliens in The Sith Empire, aliens must be as human as physically possible - often that wasn't even enough, after all, Lord Thassite and I were effectively human, save for our skin colors and her Lekku, yet we were apparently too alien for that Lord Kaull, who was so intolerant of our kind that he went as far as to send his Sith apprentice along with some acolyte thugs from Dromund Kaas after us. That fight was literally my introduction to Sith society at large, by the way, I had literally just gotten off of the shuttle from Korriban and immediately got myself in a Lightsaber fight over my species - something that I have literally no control over whatsoever - it's not like I got to design myself in some sick people making software, manufacturing myself like nothing more than a child's toy made in some mundane factory rather than a downright miraculous growth from mere cells in a womb to a fully grown baby - not to mention the wonder of Midichlorians, which based on my already significant ability in The Force despite only just having had become aware of my Force-Sensitivity a little over a week about, my Midichlorian count was quite high, and I had no idea how that contributed to the growth of a child - my point is that the formation of a sentient being is an incredibly complicated thing that we have absolutely no control over - I could be everything from a Sith Pureblood to a Hutt to a Rancor, it wasn't my choice to make - therefore, I think it's incredibly unfair that The Sith Empire's social hierarchy put humans and Sith Purebloods above everyone else, essentially, your place in Sith society is dictated by species luck - now I get off easy because I have The Force and Zen'wa is brutal enough that The Sith respect the animal enough to commission him as an officer, but if we were all equal, Lieutenant Warres would inherently be above me and, since I was less alien than them, I would inherently be above Major Zen'wa and Pernox - I didn't like this system, it was downright unfair.

"Major Zen'wa," I greeted in return after my admittedly lengthy mental rant.

"Why are you blessing us with your presence?" given the word choice and the way that the Major said it, I could tell he didn't care, nor want to be involved with whatever Sith scheme I was surely on, but he had no choice - The Imperial wanted to do things his way without supervision, which is to say, slaughtering Sand People or whatever else this Garrison does. The Sith tended to break the minds of their Officers, breaking their spirits, their minds, and their lives, leaving nothing but the hateful shells of men and women to command Imperial troops - thus increasing the amount of hate and resentment within The Sith Empire - The Sith are either loosely unified with the goal of destroying The Galactic Republic or another one of The Empire's numerous enemies, or The Sith are destroying themselves with bitter infighting - in fact, The Sith seem to save their greatest weapons for their own infighting, not wanting to risk their trump cards against The Republic when they can be used against their masters or apprentices. The Imperial officers were no different, having to rise up in the very same culture as the bitter and vengeful Sith Lords ordering those very officers around.

"I need Karvora's attention, I hear you'll help me get it," a simple yet accurate description of what I needed.

"Karvora? Karvora The Hutt?" Zen'wa asked, incredulously "He's the most powerful force in The Northern Dune Sea, you want to go up against him?"

"Yes," I affirmed, I needed The Rakatan vault key and Karvora had it, I seriously doubted that The Hutt had the clout to fight me - I was a Sith, granted I was a Light-Sided Sith, but the circumstances involving this damned vault have me rather impatient - besides, Karvora doesn't know I'm reluctant to threaten, let alone kill him, he just sees an impatient Sith with a purple Lightsaber and the ability to fill him with who knows how many volts of crackling purple Force Lightning should he resist, so yes, I wanted to go up against Karvora, and yes, I'd ruin his business to draw him out. I was determined to open The Rakatan vault, if for no reason other than because Lord Thassite, my Master, is forcing me to, given that the red-skinned Twi'Lek is a Sith Lord and I'm an apprentice fresh out of The Academy - granted The Sith Academy on Korriban is the oldest and most prestigious in the entire Empire - I really didn't have much choice in the matter, Thassite gave me my orders and, based off of The Sith hierarchy, I had to follow those orders to the letter.

"Then I'm in!" Zen'wa gave what seemed like it should've been a hearty laugh, but through that little translator in his neck, the laugh sounded wrong - distorted and mechanical, it was downright creepy - in any case, the Major was supporting us, if for no reason other than his own bloodlust and want for chaos - he knew how dangerous Karvora was, knew it better than I, even admitting that The Hutt and his forces are stronger than The Imperial forces in the region, but Zen'wa now had a Sith on his side and saw the potential to do exactly what Lord Thassite had wanted us to do - raise hell.

Now, with everyone on board, Major Zen'wa lead the three of us into the center of The Sand People's village, gathering around a large, communal table and setting up a field command center - Imperial troops set up a shade cover over us and Zen'wa used his holoprojector to display a map of The Northern Dune Sea, showing our location, Mos Evenha, and, across the dunes to the north, was Karvora's large palace, a wide and towering castle built into the rocky cliffs rising out of the cliffs, near Tatooine's North Pole - which in reality was no more than even more desert that just so happened to be near the planet's magnetic pole, all of Tatooine was hot, sun-scorched sand, no naturally occurring liquid water and no ice. Conditions on Tatooine we so bad that, in order to survive, people set up moisture farms using vaporators to sap every miniscule drop of moisture from the arid wasteland of a planet's atmosphere - I had to wonder why The Rakatans ever even cared enough about Tatooine to build their Star Map and, more importantly to me, this particular key.

"Karvora runs every type of criminal business imaginable, but disrupting three of his biggest operations will definitely hurt him." Major Zen'wa explained.

"Which three?" I asked.

"Well, Karvora's career began with extorting The Jawa trade caravans that pass through The Northern Dune Sea, he built his entire criminal empire around it, so I propose that we prove he can't protect these caravans - go and wipe out a group of The Jawas!"

"No," I replied harshly to the Major's idea "I'll convince The Jawas that Karvora can't harm them, and when The Hutt's forces try, I'll go and stop them personally, now Major, what else can we do?"

"Well, fine, protect those little rats, it's your choice my Lord," the Major wisely backed down, he was a butcher, but he knew his place in relation to The Sith "The Hutt has a large shipment of Twi'Lek slaves coming in from Ryloth, Karvora has them sorted at a Spacedock not far from his palace - go there and claim them for The Empire...or I suppose that, should you choose to, you could simply liberate the slaves,"

"I will," Zen'wa was wise to propose the second solution after I glared at him with my solid red eyes after he wanted me to take the slaves for The Sith Empire - I didn't approve of slavery either, an unfortunately rare point of view among citizens of The Empire, in any case, it didn't matter, I'd do everything I can to ensure that this particular group didn't have to become slaves again, but I moved on and asked Major Zen'wa about the last of Karvora's criminal targets "So, what's the third operation then?"

"Karvora maintains some Spice labs in the caves of the cliffs below his palace, if you can find and destroy at least one of these labs, it would severely limit how much product he'll be able to move for the foreseeable future."

"Will that be enough to get his attention?" I asked, I didn't want to waste my time messing with this particular crime lord's businesses if it wouldn't get me closer to finally getting the first of the four keys to The Rakatan vault.

"Yes," Major Zen'wa affirmed "Karvora has a short temper, like most of those fat slugs,"

"In that case, thank you very much Major,"

"Yes my Lord," he bowed, before glaring at Lieutenant Warres "Though, if I may, I suggest that you avoid this violent rogue, he's a drunk and a gambler with no respect for The Sith Empire or our -"

"Whatever you say Major, I'm with a freaking Sith now," Shallev interrupted him before walking away, given our business was concluded and I wasn't keen to hear a violent butcher of an Imperial officer chastise a man who generously offered to help me in exchange for nothing but a small favor of getting him off of this desolate world - an understandable goal for anyone, especially for a talented Imperial like Warres - simply because the Lieutenant, who I assumed was a former member of The Quarren's staff, given his relatively high rank, because Shallev happened to have a few vices. Sure, Warres wasn't particularly pleasant, nor did I particularly agree with his habits, but he was now on my side whereas Zen'wa has just an ambitious and brutal Imperial - given I'm a Sith on a mission that'll take me to numerous worlds, I'm sure I'll meet many officers just like Zen'wa. Given all of that, Pernox and I decided to side with Lieutenant Warres and also walk away - we had gotten all that we needed from Zen'wa and our new companion clearly wanted to leave, so there was absolutely no reason to stick around - we left the burning Sand People village and climbed back onto our white and blue Chiss Ascendency speeders.

"Alright," Shallev began "What's the plan?"

"Well first, we'll go to The Jawas and tell them to contact us when Karvora's gang try to extort them, after that, we'll deal with liberating the slaves and destroying the Spice lab. Once The Jawas call us about Karvora shaking them down, we'll save them and repel Karvora's forces. If Major Zen'wa is correct, The Hutt will contact us once we return to Mos Evenha."

"Sounds good," Shallev said as the three of us hopped onto our respective speeders and began speeding over to one of those distant, towering trapezoidal brown sand crawlers that The Jawas used for trading. We were going over the dunes all over again but, given that the relentless twin suns were finally beginning to set, the heat was dropping and the winds were picking up a bit - hopefully not enough to cause a sandstorm, I still considered these particular robes to be questionable in terms of protecting me from sandstorms, or anything for that matter - granted, I managed to survive the battle with The Sand People without a scratch, but if someone managed to successfully hit my upper arms of my midriff, there's nothing that my robes could do to protect me - granted, robes weren't very protective to begin with, but surely it was better than nothing! In any case, I saw that I had different options in my closet, I could've worn any set of robes, I could've even kept my black and purple robes from Manaan, but I chose to wear these revealing purple ones, despite immediately having concerns over their ability to protect me and more mundane concerns over modesty, I made the choice and I shouldn't complain over it anymore, it was Sith fashion, sure, but at the end of the day, this was my individual choice to wear these.

Eventually, our three speeders reached a small depression between the dunes - these were the "roads" that The Jawa sand crawlers used, almost like a dried up riverbed between the dunes, with the tracks from the sand crawler that we were following clearly leaving a trail behind - seems that Warres had a point, my ship would sink into the sand because even the constantly moving - at least until they reached a solid enough bit of land to do their trading - Jawa vehicles were slowly sinking into the sands. The Jawa sand crawlers didn't find a gap between the dunes, they formed the depression by centuries of using these massive things to trade with literally anyone who'll buy from them. Slowly but surely we caught up with The Jawas and watched them park their sand crawler on a solid sandstone hill to the northwest of Mos Evenha. The three of us brought our speeders over to the front of the sand crawler and stopped our vehicles, getting off them and waiting whilst the miniscule brown-robed aliens brought out their trading posts and goods - given the bridge of the sand crawler was outward and upward of the front axle, the narrow but tall tip provided a good amount of shade, especially given the shadows were lengthened considerably by the setting position of Tatooine's famous twin suns - it wasn't long until it would finally be night here.

"Jawa," I began, getting the attention of some of the short creatures, they responded in their pip-squeak language - I couldn't understand a word of it, this was going nowhere fast.

"Gl'ickeneose," Shallev interrupted, I turned to face my human companion "They have a Protocol droid,"

We went over to the Protocol droid that they were trying to sell, a somewhat rusty droid that once shined a rather magnificent silver, I activated it, which caused what seemed to be complaints from The Jawas, who probably thought that we wanted to steal the droid. I explained to the robot that I needed to talk to these traders but I didn't understand their language, so I needed this particular Protocol Droid to play the role of translator for us - fortunately, this droid for whatever reason seemed to be smarter than the one who pointed me to the cantina where I found Lieutenant Warres.

"Jawas," I began again, with the rusty protocol droid now translating for us "I am a Sith, I understand that Karvora The Hutt pretends to control these trade routes, his forces extort you under the guise of protection - well that ends today. Refuse to pay Karvora's forces, if they retaliate, summon me and I shall show them that you're now under my protection - and don't worry, I'm not forcing you to pay anything, I simply need to draw out The Hutt and extorting you was his very first business, so it will be the very first one I crush!"

The droid did it, translating my speech so well that The Jawas cheered, we succeeded in getting them to help us with our plan, now, all that we had to do was wait - Karvora's men would come, but so would we, I gave my contact information with the protocol droid - he'd act as the line of communication between these Jawas and I. We had everything that we needed from The Jawas from now, so the three of us left and went back on our speeders, we were heading for the Spacedock where the slaves were going to arrive and temporarily be held, and we'd liberate those slaves, compromising yet another one of Karvora The Hutt's key operations. The starry Tatooine sky above us as were determined to raise enough hell tonight that tomorrow morning, the hot-headed Hutt would be downright demanding an audience with us, despite having outright rejected talking to Lord Thassite prior to my arrival - key or not, after all this work just to draw him out, I'm taking The Rakatan artifact from him regardless of what exactly it is.

Our speeders were heading closer to the cliffs that Karvora The Hutt's palace was built on - it made sense that the slug would keep the spaceport where his slaves arrive rather close to his palace, this gave the slaves less opportunity to escape when getting moved towards the palace. I found it downright sickening just how much ingenuity was put into preserving and perfecting slavery rather than improving The Galaxy. Most criminals were criminals because they were stupid and brutish, but some of these crime lords - some, not necessarily all, this Hutt didn't seem particularly smart, especially given how obviously and completely he earned the ire of Lord Thassite - possess genius levels of intellect, plotting and scheme unimaginable crimes and getting away with it, all while using skills and intelligence that could honestly be used to improve the lives of people all over The Galaxy, yet instead, these particular crime lords decide to rip apart the lives of the people beneath them just for personal profit. Then again, I'm now a member of The Sith Order, regardless of my personal actions, for better or worse, I now represent an organization that does much, much worse things to the poor, the rich, the weak, and the strong than those crime lords who I was judging could ever hope to do - when the slaves that we're about to liberate see me, they'll fear me just as much, if not more, than they fear the very slug who had them kidnapped and enslaved on Ryloth and taken to this sandy rock - Karvora The Hutt.

In any case, we finally reached the Spacedock, Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I waited under the cover of darkness for the slaves to arrive, for now, we just had Karvora's guards to see. The leader of the guards was a male Rodian whose armor and gear suggested that he was a mercenary or bounty-hunter - armed with twin shiny bluish-silver blaster pistols no less - that was hired by Karvora rather than one of his actual men. That's because, based on what I was seeing, Karvora's men were the two dumb Gamorrean brutes armed with crude polearms and cheap blaster pistols - a noticeable contrast to some of the nicer blasters I've seen on Tatooine, such as the pairs belonging to this mercenary or to Lieutenant Warres. In addition to The Rodian and The Gamorreans, the slave port was guarded by three low-end battle droids, armed with equally low-end blaster rifles - I imagined that these droids, despite centuries of advanced technology, were no more of a threat than those dozens of ancient droids I cleared from The Tomb of Naga Sadow back during my trials on Korriban. Five enemies, not even the mercenary seemed like that big of a threat considering I've fought and defeated a Sith apprentice on Valken Spacedock, a very mutated Massassi brute in The Tomb of Tulak Horde, and quite a few Sith acolytes between my time on Korriban and on The Imperial Fleet - compared to these formidable foes that I've already defeated quite handedly, this mercenary and these mediocre droids and Gamorreans wouldn't be much of a challenge, even if reinforcements arrived alongside the slaves whenever their vessel landed, whenever we'd strike.

Eventually, a blocky and rusty green ship arrived and landed on the landing pad, the ramp extended directly into a caged pen and the two Gamorreans walked over to the exit of the gated area - this must've been some sort of processing center. Two more Gamorreans arrived with the shuttle, they were armed and dressed identically to their fellow two fat pig creatures who were already here - The Rodian mercenary, four Gamorreans, and three low quality droids, hardly a challenge to a Sith, a stealthy assassin, and a gunslinging Imperial - soon enough, they began to shuffle out the slaves. Major Zen'wa said that these slaves were from Ryloth, therefore I was hardly surprised to see the Gamorreans usher out numerous Twi'Leks - the men were burly for manual labor in mines and other such physical occupations, the women were thin and attractive, as Karvora, like so many others in The Galaxy, valued female Twi'Leks for their natural beauty, they'd be forced to become dancers. The slaves were pretty much every color that Twi'Leks were known for, various shades of blue and green, along with more exotic colors such as orange and purple, one of the females was even red - just like Lord Thassite, given her thick Imperial accent, she obviously wasn't a Hutt slave, but had she been an Imperial slave? I didn't know, but such a rough past could explain why she's so bitter and Dark-Sided; while I wasn't particularly privileged with my background, I was raised free on V'aran'abb by a pair of loving parents before they died, and even after that I had my aunt - who, despite handing me off to The Sith, did take care of me for quite a few years before hand - I suppose that, compared to Lord Thassite and others within The Sith Empire, I had been rather lucky growing up, outside of the boundaries of The Sith Empire itself.

"Alright," I spoke to my companions "It's time to strike,"

Pernox turned on her stealth generator whilst Lieutenant Warres snuck in closer, meanwhile, I remained on top of the hill we used as our vantage point, I could feel the cool night breeze across my arms and midriff, but it was nothing compared to the heat building up within me - so much energy was coursing through my veins until finally, I released a Force Storm upon the guard droids - their cheap electronics overloaded and the three of them instantly fell to the sand below, dead. At the same time I watched as Shallev gunned down The Rodian mercenary, I ran down closer to the compound as Pernox popped in and out of the shadows to slice down two of The Gamorreans. The other two had noticed what we were doing by now and I could feel blaster bolts pass by near me as I was running down the hill, I responded with a quick Lightning Strike, killing him. The final Gamorrean took cover and was in a shootout with Shallev, both were behind crates and were taking potshots at each other, but there was one of him and three of us. Pernox exited her stealth generated and slowly, almost cockily walked up behind The Gamorrean, she demonstrated extreme strength by picking up the diminutive but very wide and very heavy brute, she impaled him with her double-bladed vibrosword, ending the fight. I was right, a mercenary, four Gamorreans, and three battle droids proved no match for us, we had won the fight and we were about to rescue the slaves, liberate them. However, when I turned to face the slaves, they saw a hooded Sith with solid, glowing blood red eyes, they saw a monster with Lightning and a Lightsaber who would put them in an even worse condition - but no, I wasn't like the other Sith, I wasn't going to do what Major Zen'wa wanted me to do, I wouldn't kill these slaves, I would prove them wrong and set them free.

"Don't worry," I spoke to them softly "I'm here to set you free,"

I ignited my purple Lightsaber, The Twi'Leks recoiled in fear, but they shouldn't have, I was serious, I wouldn't do any harm to them at all. I cut the lock to the gate and put my weapon away, I opened the gate wide and let The Twi'Leks go free. Each and every one of them actually thanked us as we removed their shock collars and told them they could go wherever the wanted, I didn't care, they were free and Karvora lost a lot of slaves and a lot of money tonight, between this, The Jawas, and the Spice labs, Karvora The Hutt was going to wake up tomorrow morning to find out he's had the worst ever night of his criminal career. I was satisfied with what we've accomplished here. I turned away from the slave pens to see The Twi'Leks gathering behind us, pensive but grateful expressions on their faces - they legitimately couldn't comprehend that a Sith was setting them free, then again, given our history, I could hardly blame them - not to mention the sheer unlikeliness of being rescued by a Chiss Sith, a towering and seemingly violent Kaleesh, and a strange man who looked halfway between a smuggler and an Imperial Officer - which granted, was exactly where Shallev was on that particular scale - but, likely or not, we were their rescuers, and we meant it. I knew that I had to convey it to them properly - I had to do another speech.

"Listen," I began "Karvora The Hutt and I have a feud, I'm determined to run him out of business for the crimes he's committed against me and my Master, and one way I'm doing this is by liberating some of his slaves - you're free, go! Escape Karvora and escape any Imperials that will try to enslave you, I'd recommend that you leave Tatooine any way you can, this planet is a wretched hive of scum and villainy! So please, go and please, escape safely, I don't want any more harm to occur to you, The Galaxy deserves better than this."

The slave pens were dealt with, now just the Spice labs and defending The Jawas was left. We returned to our three speeders and headed for the caves under Karvora's Palace - which after all wasn't far - and we soon were disembarking them at the entrance to a cave. Karvora's forces were sloppy, their lab wasn't hidden well, I could see one of the interior lights just from out here. Karvora didn't really need to hide his labs that well, he had no major rival in The Northern Dune Sea, not even The Imperial garrison under Major Zen'wa wanted to oppose Karvora, not until they had a Sith in their arsenal. I was more than powerful enough to defeat an unprepared Karvora, especially when I had the help of these two powerhouse companions, Lieutenant Warres and even more so the strong and constantly loyal Pernox. These three of us, our powerful trio, we were walking into the well lit cave to the Spice lab, after a few narrow corners, the cave finally opened up to a wide clearing where a six of the slug's alien thugs were forcing numerous stripped down Twi'Lek women to make their drugs - these were where the ones who couldn't or wouldn't dance would end up.

"Karvora's business ends tonight!" I yelled out as the three of us burst into action, I took out four of the thugs with a single use of Chain Lightning, meanwhile Shallev knocked another to his knees and executed him with a shot to the head - very brutal I have to admit. Pernox was even more brutal, she disarmed her opponent - literally - before slicing through him with her double-bladed vibrosword again, this time, rather than the thug's hands hitting the ground, it was his head. We had brutally crushed Karvora's men and liberated his slaves once again. Once the last of them had left, Lieutenant Warres left a grenade on the dangerously flammable materials needed to process the Spices. Shallev, Pernox, and I cleared out as the cave exploded from the grenade, eliminating the Spice lab, permanently. All that was left to do was to wait for when Karvora's enforcers took their nightly cut from The Jawa traders - with that, this would definitely be enough to get Karvora The Hutt's attention - all we had to do, was wait.

"Gl'ickeneose! They're here!" The protocol droid contacted me and our trio quickly rushed back to the sand crawler on our speeders, wouldn't be long until we were done for the night. Indeed, we soon arrived to find the pitiful force that Karvora sent - granted, he still thought he was dealing with a bunch of Jawas, he hardly knew what he was dealing with - a burly Twi'Lek thug lead a group of the very same kind of cheap battle droids, he was speaking angrily in Huttese - which I couldn't understand, other than simply identifying it for what it was. I launched Force Lightning at him, his angry rant turned into pained screaming, I quickly took out one of the droids with a Lightning Strike whilst Shallev gunned down the other two, meanwhile, Pernox exited from the shadows with a fatal slash through the mercenary's chest. The slaves were liberated, the Spice lab was destroyed, and Karvora failed to extort The Jawa traders tonight, we had won, and we would be waiting in Mos Evenha when Karvora woke up in a fit of rage.

* * *

Just one more chapter for the Tatooine arc, hope you guys are enjoying the story thus far, please let me know! Read, review, and enjoy!

I love you all, peace out!


	11. Enter The Palace of Karvora The Hutt

Alright ladies and gentlemen, time to wrap up Tatooine, please read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XI.

Enter The Palace of Karvora The Hutt.

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I woke up the next morning and once again donned the purple robes - I wanted to make it one-hundred percent clear to Karvora that I was the very same Sith who tore his operations apart last night - surely he'd have had cameras or survivors from those locations who'd tell him exactly what I did, even if not, it surely wouldn't take The Hutt long to figure out his businesses were hit hard and it wouldn't take him much longer to contact The Imperials. Lieutenant Warres, Pernox, and I prepared everything that we needed - Shallev polished and reloaded his blasters, Pernox sharpened the twin blades of her double-bladed vibrosword, and I meditated in the mean time - before disembarking _The Black Shadow_ and headed out to The Imperial garrison's tent. We climbed down the ramp and once again walked the familiar trail up the hill to the tent, which was the largest structure in Mos Evenha, bigger than the cantina but obviously not a permanent structure. We were certainly the most powerful trio in town, a Sith apprentice, a fanatical Kaleesh assassin, and an Imperial turned gunslinger, and by now, the town must've known that we rescued The Imperial garrison and then went after Karvora, now, we'd see the fruits of our labor.

We reached the top of the hill and walked into the tent, now filled with Imperial troops - they were very familiar with Lieutenant Warres, I saw equal amounts of happy surprise and angry glares directed at the bearded human, meanwhile, they looked at me with a mix of fear and admiration, which I suppose was typical for a Sith - I was aware some of their eyes focused on the areas exposed by these robes, male and female alike, and I didn't like it, but I wasn't going to acknowledge it, that wouldn't be the appropriate thing for a Sith to do - and Pernox with fear and confusion...as well as judgmentally, The Sith Empire became more accepting of aliens because they needed to, but reluctant acceptance was not tolerance, so when this mainly human group of Imperials saw the towering robed Kaleesh walking through their base, they weren't particularly happy with it, but given Pernox had a deadly weapon on her beck and was travelling with a Sith, these Imperials couldn't do anything about it, just like they couldn't do anything about Major Zen'wa. Speaking of, The Quarren butcher was waiting alongside a large holoprojector, the protocol droid who I had met earlier was next to them. I stood directly in the front of the holoprojector while Lieutenant Warres and Pernox stood over to my right, this meant that, when Karvora called, he'd see me in the center of a group of five, which worked well for me, I certainly looked more powerful when joined with my two companions and a particularly brutal Imperial Officer - granted the protocol droid wasn't intimidating, but we'd need it for translation purposes, unless, of course, Karvora had his own translator, which I imagined he would, but there's also a very good chance that the hot-headed Hutt would call us without appropriate preparations, if so, I'd be proud, because that would mean that our work last night really got to the slug.

"Query: Are you The Sith meatbag who has been interfering with my Master's business?" the hologram came to life, displaying a fuming Karvora The Hutt with two Twi'Lek dancers attempting to calm him down, meanwhile, an armed protocol droid did the talking.

"Indeed I am," I responded, looking at The Hutt rather than his droid.

"Query: Tell me meatbag, what makes you think that you can challenge my Master?"

"Karvora The Hutt," I addressed the slug in person, ignoring his droid "My Master, Lord Thassite, inquired to you over a Rakatan artifact in your possession, my Master needs this artifact and you refused to so much as speak to her."

"Statement: The Rakatan artifact is ours and on auction, if your meatbag so-called Master wants it, she has to big just like every other flesh sack." The droid responded, but once again, my business wasn't with a droid, mine was with Karvora.

"Karvora, I have proven that I can rip your businesses apart with ease, I have proven that your men and your droids are no match for me and for my powerful allies, we want the artifact and you missed your chance to potentially get paid over this. You will hand over The Rakatan artifact to me or I will crush every source of income you have before bursting through the door to your throne room." Now, I seriously didn't intend to go after each and every business that Karvora The Hutt has but he doesn't know that, all he knows is that I'm a powerful young Sith and, in one night, I disrupted three of his core businesses, he knows that I have the capacity to do way more damage, and he also knows that stopping me would be incredibly expensive - either by handing over his priceless ancient artifact or by hiring a force that's large enough, skilled enough, and equipped well enough to defeat a powerful Sith Sorceress. From where I was standing, I had Karvora The Hutt in checkmate, he had absolutely no way to win this now.

Karvora yelled out in rage in Huttese - which, just like last night, I didn't understand a word of - he was so loud that he startled The Twi'Leks and scared them away, the droid looked at his owner, somehow making his metallic, snout-like head appear incredulous, I wasn't sure what Karvora yelled out, but his droid - who seemed to be more than just a translator, the droid seemed to actually be one of his lieutenants, perhaps even his second in command - a lot of authority to give to a protocol droid, then again, this was hardly a regular protocol droid. This angry Hutt had a strange criminal Empire, but unless he's going to hand over The Rakatan artifact, I'll tear his criminal empire apart - I needed the first of those damned keys.

"Incredulous Declaration: Karvora has agreed to meet in person at his Palace, we will discuss terms there," The droid wasn't happy about it, but I had gotten what I wanted, I had gotten my audience.

"Good," I smirked "I'll see you soon Karvora,"

"Veiled threat: We will make sure you're well taken care of." Naturally, this would be a trap, but, this trap would also get me into Karvora's palace, given I was confident that I could defeat anything that Karvora could throw at me, I wasn't particularly worried, I'd spring the trap and defeat it, then I'd force The Hutt to hand over the key - I won't kill him though, not unless he forces me to do so. In any case, the holoprojector turned off, we got what we wanted, now it was time to plan on how we'd proceed from here.

"That droid isn't good at hiding his feelings, is he?" Shallev joked, attempting to bring levity to the situation.

"No, he is not," our own protocol droid responded, matter-of-factly, obviously not understanding humor. Major Zen'wa, Pernox, and I meanwhile gathered in the next room, a planning room.

"How do you want to proceed, my Lord?" Major Zen'wa asked, continuing The Imperial practice of addressing all Sith as a Lord, regardless of their actual rank with The Order, out of respect.

"Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I will go to The Palace and meet with Karvora, we'll force him to hand over The Rakatan artifact, that's the simple part." I began "I have no doubt that this is a trap, I very much imagine Karvora will try to separate and trap us within The Palace, but we'll handle that - we've already established that his men aren't much of a challenge to us. I also imagine that, while we're preoccupied in his palace, he'll try a counterattack, you and your forces need to entrench yourselves around Mos Evenha and expect an attack, with any luck, we'll return quickly to help you defend the village." The plan was set, Major Zen'wa agreed to it, and it was showtime now, Pernox, Shallev, and I left The Imperials to their own preparations whilst we left their tent, walking back to _The Black Shadow_ to get the three stolen Chiss Ascendency speeders we had gotten our hands on earlier.

We lowered the cargo hold platform and climbed onto our speeders, I sat down and allowed my boots to peek out from under my robes so that I could wrap around the seat, the throttle and brake were on the handles, given these were speeder bikes, but I still wanted to secure myself to the seat as much as I could - I didn't particularly want to fly off a fast speeder bike going up a sand dune, especially not in these robes - in any case, we were ready, and once again we took the speeders out of Mos Evenha and out onto The Northern Dune Sea, heading out over to the very same cliffs that contained the spice lab that we blew up last night. Up on the top of those cliffs, towering over the dunes was Karvora The Hutt's Palace, a tall, wide, and elaborate structure in contrast to the otherwise dull and natural landscape - these crime lords tended to gave quite garish tastes, especially The Hutts, but this eyesore Palace wouldn't mean anything once I embarrassed Karvora and took the priceless Rakatan artifact that he was trying to sell - Karvora, in a fit of rage, agreed to let me have an audience with it, much to the chagrin of his droid lieutenant, and because of that, he was now completely vulnerable to anything I needed to do to get that key, even if it meant leaving the incredibly rusty, once silver tower entirely vacant.

As we neared the cliffs we veered eastward along the ridgeline before curving north alongside the rocky natural structure, slowly but surely the rocks got lower and lower until finally we curved upwards over a sand incline heading to the monolithic palace. As our speeders arrived at the top of the incline next to the entrance of the palace - the seemingly endless Northern Dune Sea filling the horizon with the haze of the heat obscuring even the relatively close by Mos Evenha from sight - we saw our welcoming party. The protocol droid from the holocall with Karvora The Hutt stood tall in front of the entrance holding a long blaster sniper rifle, he was flanked by ten of the cheap droids we encountered earlier - compared to this high end protocol droid, these low quality battle droids looked so much weaker and so much more insignificant, nevertheless, each one was armed with a blaster rifle...the combined volume of fire from ten full automatic blaster rifles surrounding us could easily overwhelm us, allowing the lead droid to pick us off one by one with his sniper rifle. They thought they had the advantage, but droids were weak to Force Lightning, which happened to be my specialty, with the help of the quick-drawing Lieutenant Warres and the stealth capable Pernox, I was fairly confident that we could win this fight.

"Greeting: Welcome meatbag, I am HK-57, personal bodyguard and head tactician to Karvora The Hutt." Now that the droid wasn't obscured by the blue glow of a holoprojector, I could see his solid black coloration - the most pristine thing I've seen on Tatooine - and his equally solid red eyes - strange that a droid's eyes can be described the exact same way as mine. His designation, HK-57, was very telling - The HK-series of droid are elite Hunter-Killer droids that masquerade as mere protocol droids, they had a distinctive speech pattern and an equally distinctive penchant for spreading murder and chaos, his model number, 57 marked him as very, very new - the newest I've personally heard of was 51, though others have insisted there's further models all the way up to 55, I wasn't sure, but I did know that HK-57 meant he was a very new and very deadly droid, fortunately, at very least, for now, he was being amicable rather than hostile - though the fact he assembled such a large group of droids just to see us arrive was definitely a statement of hostility, the thing is, I didn't know if this veiled threat was Karvora's idea or the droid's very own doing. In any case, here I was, well aware of being surrounded, but also aware that I was a Sith and could press that advantage, it was time to finally get my audience with The Hutt.

"Hello droid," I responded confidently, I was well aware that we were surrounded and that this situation could prove to be very risky, but I was a Sith, I was supposed to be arrogant, I was supposed to be larger-than-life, mere mentions of me were supposed to bring chills to even the most hardened criminals, someone like Karvora was supposed to be no match for me, even if Karvora had the homefield advantage and an army of droids and thugs at his disposal - The Sith Empire was absolutely powerful, absolutely stronger than the entire Hutt Cartel, let alone just one of their kind on a backwater planet "My name is Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe and I represent the interests of my Master, Lord Thassite, and of The Sith Empire. As you've no doubt noticed, I'm more than capable of ruining Karvora's entire criminal empire, I hope he understands that obediently handing over The Rakatan artifact is his last chance - he now knows that opposing a Sith is a very bad idea, especially because opposing one Sith means opposing their apprentices, perhaps even their own Masters - if you think Lord Thassite is bad, consider this - who is her Master? What happens when Karvora isn't up against a mere Lord and her apprentice, but perhaps even a Darth?"

I didn't know Lord Thassite's Master, perhaps they were a Darth, perhaps they were dead, I didn't know, but neither did Karvora The Hutt and this HK-57 droid, I just wanted to intimidate the droid with the threat of escalation. In reality, I very much doubted that Lord Thassite's Master knew about this, after all, it would be perfectly within the realm of Sith politics for an apprentice to hide her schemes from her Master and vice versa, I'm sure Lord Thassite was up to much more than merely this one particular scheme with The Codex, this was merely the one that I was involved in. In any case, what mattered is that I conveyed my point to HK-57 and maybe, just maybe, put some fear into him - not that I knew, the metallic face wasn't exactly expressive, nor could I sense any thoughts from a CPU, I was sure that if I tried to sense the deep emotions of a sentient being, such as fear, I could, however, droids were entirely mechanical, despite the fact that they can develop distinct personalities or complex trains of thought, no droid can ever have a connection to The Force, no droid has a Midichlorian count - how could that even work? Therefore, droids were invisible to The Force, though not by any means immune to it, as I said, droids are particularly weak to Force Lightning, which can overload their circuitry and leave them inoperable.

"Statement: I understand Sith, Karvora has agreed to meet you and discuss terms. Stern Recommendation: be grateful for that." I noticed that HK-57 spoke to me with quite a bit disdain, but I also noticed that, for the very first time, in that particular case, he didn't refer to me as a meatbag, merely as a Sith - though he knew my name and still doing go as far as to address me properly, but I had a feeling that I had indeed managed to scare the droid at least a little bit. Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I followed HK-57 into the wide yet monolithic palace, with the rest of the droids following us in twin straight-line formations of five. The first floor of The Palace seemed to be a combination of a bar and a casino, but we didn't have a chance to explore, HK-57 and his droids ushered us straight through the room to the elevator that would take us up to the throne room. HK-57 stopped in the entrance to the elevator, blocking us from coming in, I was directly in front of him and his of his droids were behind each of my companions.

"Statement: Your companions will remain down here," HK-57 said ominously, but I had already predicted that they would try this, if this was a trap, which I was now almost certain that it was, we'd turn it around on them.

"Okay," I went over to Pernox and Shallev, gathering them close by and whispering to them, going over what the current game plan was - we'd win this situation no matter what "Remain down here together and keep your weapons and holoprojectors no matter what - if I send you a signal, two beeps on your holoprojectors, it's a trap, take down these droids and begin taking over The Palace, I'll meet you as soon as I can and we'll all go together to get The Rakatan artifact. If I don't send the signal, all is going well and I'll be down here with the key as soon as I possibly can. Be careful, stay safe, stay vigilant, and don't trust anyone here, they're all loyal to Karvora and all of them may very well prove to be an enemy."

"I understand Gl'ickeneose," Pernox whispered in return "Stay safe,"

"Good luck," Shallev replied before the two of them went over to couches on different sides of the room so they could scan everything, meanwhile, the battle droids remained in their formation, straight down in two lines along the central path. I walked into the elevator with HK-57, pressing my back to the wall - the metal wall definitely felt cold against the exposed portion of my back but it was necessary. I kept my hood on and crossed my arms to appear relaxed, just leaning against the elevator wall and waiting for us to reach the throne room, but in reality, I was watching HK-57's every single move whilst I was sure that the droid was doing the exact same thing to me. We went past floor after floor as we continued up the monolith, then, for a while, was quite a long pause between the floors - I really tall floor, perhaps a ballroom. In any case, directly above that tall floor was the top of the tower, Karvora The Hutt's throne room, the highest seat over the entire Northern Dune Sea, so tall that the tower was reinforced with a metal frame built into the cliffside below to serve as a foundation for what was surely a very, very heavy building, especially considering that it's at least partially built on top of the sand.

I walked into a throne room, the room was circular with windows on both sides, ending just before reaching the elevated platform that Karvora sat on. The Hutt himself was absolutely massive, easily over twenty feet long and he probably weighed more than a ton, the crime lord was a incredibly fat and lived an incredibly sleazy life, he was eating some sort of disgusting, greasy food and had a pair of disgusted Twi'Lek slaves forced to sit intimately close to them while wearing next to nothing - they were here against their will and they were clearly as grossed out with the fat slug as I was, but given the had chains going from their shock collars to somewhere under The Hutt - they were literally trapped by The Hutt - they had no choice but to remain on the platform, fully exposed and at the mercy of the slobbering Hutt below. HK-57 shoved past me and walked over to his apparently normal place at Karvora's side, elsewhere in the room were a handful of bounty hunters and mercenaries gathered near elevated poles where even more Twi'Lek slave girls were forced to dance for their entertainment - this whole place was disgusting, my midriff and arms were exposed but I was still the most dressed woman in the room by an absolute mile. In any case, it was time to meet with Karvora The Hutt himself, I walked towards his platform but I stopped just short of a grate - looking through it, I could see the room below, filled with bones and other remains of victims killed and eaten by some sort of monster - this was the massive room below, and this grate was a trap door. I needed to be careful to avoid this particular trap, especially if this was Karvora's ace in the hole.

"Karvora," I began speaking to him whilst putting slight pressure on his throat with The Force, not quite a Force Choke, it wouldn't kill him, I just wanted to make sure he understand that he was not in control here, I wanted to make it clear that even though I strolled into _his_ throne room, in the heart of _his_ palace, I held _all_ the power here "I understand that you refused to talk to my Master, Lord Thassite, over The Rakatan artifact in your possession - the fact you refused to even talk to her is incredibly disrespectful, how dare you do something so terrible to a Sith Lord? You should've understood that there are consequences for treating a Sith so poorly, now you've seen them - I've liberated your slaves, destroyed the Spice lab in the caves below this very Palace, and put an end to your extortion of a Java caravan, this can easily continue, each and every one of your enterprises can come to a bitter end as The Sith Empire slowly but surely tightens around your fat, pathetic neck like a noose...can you feel the pressure already?"

The Hutt was biological, I could sense the fear within him as I steadily tightened the pressure around his throat to the point where he couldn't quite speak but wasn't in danger of dying yet. Karvora started barking out a few short, choppy statements in Huttese, I could tell that this was getting the attention of everyone else in the room, The Twi'Lek slaves, the bounty hunters and the mercenaries were all watching us now, all in utter disbelief that the mighty Karvora, the crime lord that keeps the entire Northern Dune Sea under his thumb to be no more than an utter coward, a fat slug that's no match for a mere Sith apprentice that's only been on Tatooine for two days and already exposed his true nature. In fact, what I was currently doing to put pressure on Karvora's throat was slightly curling my right pointer finger, The Force was an amazingly powerful thing, so much so it easily allowed me to dominate this room while Karvora stuttered out some broken statement for HK-57 to translate over to me.

"Pained Request: Karvora asks that you release his throat." HK-57 said briefly and simply, he clearly didn't want to make this request but he had no choice at all, Karvora was clearly in pain and his stock with these bounty hunter and mercenaries was plummeting, The Hutt needed to return to keeping up appearances as soon as possible and both of us knew it, so his men had to see Karvora's most trusted droid lieutenant meekly request that this completely new face that walked into his throne room stop choking him.

"Very well," I abruptly stopped choking Karvora, causing him to pathetically gasp in front of the entire room, heavily breathing and coughing that gross, greasy...thing that he was eating. I patiently waited for him to get his act together, all while listening to his most trusted and elite hired men muttering to each other about their boss's true weakness, the fat slug with all the power in the region, the one who was supposed to rule the region with an iron fist, completely unconcerned with the vicious butcher Imperial Major Zen'wa and his crusade against The Sand People, that didn't matter to Karvora The Hutt, he had the true power over The Northern Dune Sea, all until now, now, his entire operation, his entire criminal empire, and even his own life were in jeopardy, all because he decided to ignore a Sith Lord's request, now he had to deal with her apprentice.

In any case, I now watched Karvora The Hutt, who managed to pull himself all together, begin a rushed, angry rant in Huttese, just from his tone and the reactions of the crowd, I could tell that he was telling some terrible, possibly even creative threats to me, but it didn't matter, these were all empty threats, I controlled this situation now and I haven't even taken out my lightsaber yet, I've barely even started to use The Force, I could electrocute away his hunter killer droid lieutenant easily, a Force Storm for the bounty hunters and mercenaries, and then Karvora himself was no threat at all, meanwhile, Pernox and Lieutenant Warres would being taking control of this Palace. Karvora The Hutt can think he's in control of this situation all he wants, I knew that we truly held the power, I knew that victory was certain, I knew that the only way we'd be walking out of this Palace is with The Rakatan artifact in our possession, whether or not Karvora and his criminal empire survive that exchange is entirely up to him.

"Intriguing Threat: If you choke Karvora again, he'll have you strangled by a molten battle droid." The practicality of this threat was questionable, but I could definitely tell that Karvora The Hutt was angry and I imagine that HK-57 was delighted that his boss could snap at any moment, but so was I, I had Karvora on the ropes and his credibility was in shreds, I was going to win this exchange, I was going to get my Rakatan artifact - which again, after all this work, definitely should be the damn vault key, I was itching to get off of this sandy rock as soon as possible. I had shown Karvora what I could do to him, he was angry, all his men were watching, and I was in control: it was time to make my demand.

"Karvora," again, I avoided addressing HK-57, I was talking to The Hutt directly, his prized assassin droid was nothing more than a translator for me, that's exactly how a Sith should behave in this situation "I'm here for one thing and one thing only, hand over the damn Rakatan artifact and I leave here with no one getting hurt, refuse, and you will have problems."

"Request:" HK-57 began after Karvora whispered to him privately "Step forward please."

"I'm not stupid Karvora, I see your pitiful little trap," I mocked and raised my right hand, now properly choking him, and I looked downright terrifying while I was doing it, my red eyes from just below my hood looking absolutely menacing as, for the first time, I outright threatened to kill someone...I really was in danger of becoming just like all those other evil Sith who absolutely disgusted me just mere days ago "Stop this stalling and hand over The Rakatan artifact now! I'm sick and tired off your stupid games Hutt! You're nothing to me but a pitiful obstacle - stop trying my patience, stop this nonsense, and give me my artifact before your fat body is nothing more than a green corpse on the floor!"

"Tactical Observation: You're outnumbered Sith." HK-57 said, coldly "Final Warning: Back Down."

I released Karvora and blew the bounty hunters and mercenaries away with a Force Wave - I specifically mentally noted to avoid the innocent Twi'Lek slaves, they had nothing to do with this other than having the misfortune of having been enslaved by this particularly sick and perverted Hutt bastard, he was by all means a terrible excuse for a sentient being. I noticed that Karvora opened the trap door, more importantly, I also noticed that HK-57 was nowhere to be seen, I looked around and tried to find him, but I didn't have the chance to find him, he came up from behind me and pushed me down the trap door before leaping in behind me - I would have to fight two difficult foes - HK-57 and whatever monster had eaten these poor victims and left these massive piles of bones down here. This would be a very difficult, very interesting fight.

When I hit the ground I quickly gave the signal to Pernox and Lieutenant Warres - two beeps on my holoprojector - and got up just as quickly, HK-57 landed with his sniper rifle on one end of the room, and I heard a massive monster come out of a dark corner on the opposite end of the room, it gave a huge, guttural roar as it slowly but surely came out into the light. The beast was a massive Sithspawn, a Terentatek - I had no clue how Karvora was able to get such a creature, but perhaps it has to do with why he avoided even talking to Lord Thassite, Karvora The Hutt must have been allied to a different Sith, a rival to Lord Thassite, perhaps even a different Sith who has learned of this Rakatan vault, and is also searching for all these Rakatan keys. I didn't know, perhaps I could investigate this particular link on my free time, but right now, I could hardly afford to ask questions of be concerned with why this Terentatek is here, right now, I had to defeat The Terentatek and I had to defeat HK-57 with his deadly sniper rifle, and I had to do all of this at once.

The Terentatek was briefly stopped when it reached the limits of its chain, I could quickly tell that it would easily break out of the chain and enter the fight, but I had a moment to deal with HK-57, I ran closer to him, narrowly missing getting hit by three of his sniper bolts, but the fourth hit me in the lower ribs - I didn't have a chance to heal myself, after all, I was dealing with a deadly hunter killer assassin droid _and_ an equally deadly, towering, titanic monster that only exists because of Sith alchemy - I had to keep running until I was close enough to attack HK-57. Once I was finally confident that I could actually hit the droid with my Force Lightning, I rose both my arms - fully aware of the absolutely burning sting as my skin pulled the wound - and filled the HK unit with who-knows how many volts of deadly electricity that should surely overload his circuitry, no droid could possibly survive such an event, even an elite, likely custom-made assassin droid like HK-57 would surely be destroyed by this much Force Lightning.

"Technical Assessment: Electrical countermeasures activated." I had nowhere near enough technological knowledge to know how this worked, but somehow HK-57 had a way to survive a huge amount of electricity, he was apparently impossibly resistant to Lightning, I didn't know how, but he was, I couldn't simply electrocute the droid away. He attempted to raise his sniper and line-up a shot that would almost definitely kill me, but I had a Force technique that this droid surely didn't have any sort of countermeasure against: I blew the droid back into the elevator door with a Force Push and kept him pushed against the elevator, preventing him from lining up any other shots. I used The Force to pull my purple lightsaber to my left hand and cut the droid apart diagonally and the stuffed my lightsaber into its head - the only way to truly kill a droid is to destroy the CPU and hard drive that store its personality and programming - I didn't want to fight this droid ever again - after all, I had a bloody wound from the very bottom of my upper robe - he just missed my midriff, while the droid wasn't particularly protecting me, it was still better to get hit there than on fully exposed skin, though the wound was incredibly painful regardless, especially given I wouldn't have a chance to heal the wound due to the fact that I had literally seconds until I had to fight The Terentatek.

I started turning over my left shoulder to face the monster just as it had thrown a massive chunk of ceiling pillar just to the left of the elevator, the boulder exploded into miniature pebbles mere feet from my face - I was completely and utterly disoriented, my vision wouldn't line up, my ears were ringing, and I was stumbling, all while the beast roared and I could hear Karvora The Hutt laughing from above, but I wasn't here to die today, eventually, I managed to pull myself together and straightened up, glaring at The Sithspawn. I knew that Sithspawn were very Force resistant, but, Force Lightning was realistically my one and only way to fight - I especially didn't want to pitifully try hitting a monster that could easily swallow me whole with my lightsaber. Once again, I rose both my arms and decided to try a Force Storm this time, I utterly surrounded The Terentatek with Force Lightning and watched as the beast went from shrugging off the pain, to pained, guttural growls, to collapsing down to its alien knees, and I finally saw the monster die. The corpse collapsed to the ground and so did I. I was on my knees panting, grasping for breath as I felt my blood pumping through my veins, I completely overexerted myself, but it was necessary to kill this huge Sith beast - how the hell did Karvora have this damned thing? I rolled over to my back, looking up at a shocked Karvora The Hutt through the grate as I used my left hand to heal the wound - the blood and scars were gone, but I was still mentally and physically drained, however, I still had work to do - it was time to get The Rakatan artifact.

I got myself to me feet and went over to the elevator, trying to find a way to open it - there didn't seem to be any way to open it from this side, just claw marks and dried blood from where other poor victims had tried to escape. I was about to try and use The Force to somehow unlock the elevator when it opened suddenly, I pulled my lightsaber to my hand and got my guard up only to be relieved to see Pernox and Lieutenant Warres inside, I breathed a sigh of relief and joined them inside of the elevator.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked as we took the elevator back up to Karvora's throne room.

"We tracked your holoprojector signal here," Shallev revealed, it was a bright idea I had to admit, they certainly helped me out here. I was very grateful for my companions, Pernox has been on my side since I joined forces with her in The Tomb of Naga Sadow when we defeated those K'Lor'slugs, she was very loyal, very powerful, and very intimidating to my enemies. Lieutenant Warres had only been with me for a few tasks here on Tatooine, but he's already proven himself to be a very versatile and resourceful companion, on some level, I hoped that he'd decide to stick with us beyond Tatooine rather than just hitch a ride on _The Black Shadow_ like we had agreed upon way back in the cantina when he helped me find Major Zen'wa. In any case, the elevator door opened and we saw Karvora The Hutt, stubbornly sitting on his throne after all his slaves had managed to escape after I incapacitated the bounty hunters and mercenaries in the room - obviously Karvora himself wasn't a threat, he could hardly move under all his weight and his arms were miniscule, stubby things that served literally no purpose whatsoever, he was in no way a physical threat, just a slug laying on some chains that his slave girls had escaped from - he was nothing.

"Where is The Rakatan artifact?" I yelled out angrily, Karvora opened his eyes wide and panicked, pointing one of his stubby little arms at a safe in the wall. I used The Force to break the lock and open the safe, I took The Rakatan vault key and nothing else - I left the credits for Karvora and spared him - I had what I wanted and he lost all his prestige and likely his entire criminal empire, I had no reason to waste my own effort to kill this particular pathetic slug, I'd just leave him to his own misery. We had our key so Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I left The Palace to return to _The Black Shadow_.

* * *

Well crap, this was another long chapter - not quite as long as chapter eight which ended the Manaan arc but still the second longest chapter of the story thus far - but I don't think that's an inherently bad thing, if a chapter is naturally longer than the others, then so be it - but please let me know what you guys think about these long chapter, after all, I'm writing for you. Anyway, as always, please continue to read, review, and, most importantly, to enjoy!

I love you all, peace out!


	12. New Problems on An Ancient World

Last chapter brought an end to The Tatooine arc and Gl'ickeneose got the first of the four Rakatan vault keys, next, her adventures bring her to The Rakatan homeworld of Lehon, also known as Rakata Prime. Please read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XII.

New Problems on An Ancient World.

* * *

I locked The Rakatan artifact in a wall-mounted safe within the cargo hold - I trusted Pernox, my full time companion, and Lieutenant Warres, who for now was just a temporary stowaway - but I just wanted the key we spent so much time and effort getting from Karvora to be as safe as physically possible, and that particular bit of secure storage was the safest place that I could find on _The Black Shadow_ , it would be more than good enough. I turned around and looked at our speeders, they were incredibly nice, very sleek, and very fast, not to mention that I was able to get them for free - that Toydarian seriously didn't want to deal with a Sith, even if his thugs were evidently able to steal from The Chiss Ascendency - I had to wonder why exactly they were on Tatooine to begin with, The Distant Outer Rim world isn't particularly close to Chiss territory, nor is there any historic link between Tatooine and The Ascendency, as far as I know at least. In any case, the speeders were ours now and I'd definitely find many opportunities to use them - though perhaps not on Lehon, our next destination, given Lord Thassite described the world as an ocean planet dotted with island chains - speaking of, I suppose I should inform my Master of our success.

I headed out of the cargo hold and headed for the large, central holoprojector, still dressed in the revealing purple robes from my time on Tatooine, however, I heard Lieutenant Warres call me into the cockpit - he was longing in the pilot's seat for the moment...not sure how I felt about Shallev, who thus far has insisted that he's merely a temporary passenger, sitting in the pilot's seat of _The Black Shadow_. I opted to lean against the wall with my arms crossed rather than sitting in the co-pilot's seat...I liked the pilot's seat!

"You handled yourself well on Tatooine," I told him.

"Thanks," he responded "You did too, tore Karvora's empire apart. That HK unit and that giant monster, you defeated both of those, real impressive."

"Thank you," I gave a brief smile "So, why'd you call me in here?"

"Well Gl'ickeneose, when Major Zen'wa discharged me, I figured I was done for, left to gamble, drink, and rot on Tatooine, but then you showed up, made proper quick work of those Sand People, then Karvora, real impressive. So uh, listen, that was some incredibly fun fighting and being an Imperial Officer has great pay, so what I'm asking is, I name drop you to keep my job, and I travel with you under some nonsense Imperial technicality, so, what do you say?" Lieutenant Warres clearly felt awkward about asking this, but in terms of what he was actually proposing, I could definitely get behind that, he's already proven himself to be more than capable enough to act as a companion, so yeah, I was definitely going to agree to this...but you know, I figured that I could have a little bit of fun before I let Shallev know that.

"Well we only agreed to drop you off at the next rock," I smirked.

"Cheeky, real cheeky," Shallev smirked in turn, he knew damn well that I was messing with him.

"No really, we've already decided to leave you on Ord Mantell," Ord Mantell was nowhere near Tatooine, but from what I knew about Ord Mantell, the planet was a particularly unpleasant warlord and has been for a few decades now.

"Well good luck with that, I'm in the captain's seat," he smirked, thinking he had the upper hand now, but I decided that I was going to win this playful exchange. I used The Force to propel him out of the seat and he stumbled over The Galaxy map between the seats, I watched his face go from fear, to disbelief, to a hearty laugh, I strolled over to the pilot's seat and sat down, a triumphant expression on my face.

"I win," I smirked.

"Fair enough," he laughed "But seriously, keep me around, you know that I'm a damned good shot."

"I will Shallev, I will," I smirked, that was a fun exchange, just to clarify, it's nothing more, while I'm sure that Shallev would like to think there was some sort of chemistry there, I wasn't into men, I simply had a sense of humor that was coming out again now that I was adjusting to life in The Sith Empire, I couldn't quite joke around with Pernox given she was very serious, very faithful, and very devoted, not necessarily a comedian, but I knew from the beginning that Shallev was more laidback, after all, my first meeting with him was seeing him enjoying his time winning at a Pazaak table while drinking and smoking a death-stick, but I was glad that he was now a more permanent companion, travelling with him and Pernox made us a substantially stronger force in battle and provided us with a very interesting dynamic in and out of combat, I liked it. The exchange with Lieutenant Warres was resolved and I had no more reason to remain in the cockpit, so again, I left the room to contact Lord Thassite on the holoprojector, the difference being that this time I actually made it to the large, central communication device without interruption - theoretically, I could contact Lord Thassite on my mobile holoprojector, but given that _The Black Shadow_ had this large, internal holo, there was no reason why I shouldn't use the life-size, clearer, communicator.

"Lord Thassite," I greeted as the shimmering blue image of my Twi'Lek Sith Master erupted from the communication device "I've retrieved Karvora The Hutt's Rakatan artifact, I'm almost certain it's the key."

"Really? Now why's that?" Lord Thassite asked, I wasn't quite sure if she was asking because she's intrigued or because she's paranoid that I may be lying to her for whatever reason.

"I sense it Master, the moment I saw it I instantly realized that this was The Rakatan vault key." I responded sincerely.

"Very well then apprentice," Lord Thassite apparently trusted me enough to take my word for it "Did Major Zen'wa assist you?"

"Yes, after I rescued him from a battle with The Sand People, he pointed me in the appropriate direction, I hit the targets and drew out Karvora, he gave me an audience and I used the opportunity to get the key while Major Zen'wa and his forces defended Mos Evenha from a potential counterattack, all in all I'm satisfied with his cooperation - he did what was needed." while I did disagree with his decision on the matter of Lieutenant Warres, Major Zen'wa did assist me otherwise and I certainly wasn't going to be as vindictive as other Sith, sure he's brutal but what Lord Thassite would do to him simply because she felt like it would be much more brutal, so in that respect, I could sympathize with The Quarren.

"Good, is there anything else I should know about your mission on Tatooine?" Lord Thassite evidently wanted a rather comprehensive debrief of her apprentice's very first mission away from her direct supervision, in any case, I would share whatever is necessary.

"Karvora The Hutt evidently has a link to another Sith, there was a Terentatek in his palace, I'm not entirely sure if that means a Sith is aware of the artifacts or just if Karvora does business with a Sith, either one could definitely explain why he downright refused to contact you." I shared what I knew about the beast I killed, the implications of the matter, and finally my suspicions.

"Interesting," Lord Thassite mused "We shall see if this leads to any interference, otherwise, you can investigate this on your own time."

"Very well Master," I responded.

"Now, onto our current obstacle," Lord Thassite transitioned "The next key should be on Lehon, The Rakatan homeworld, this one should be simple, we have a modest settlement just south of the equator called Imperial Outpost Warhead, we chose this location so our scientists could observe the native Rakatans, their nearby ancient village is suspected to contain a very dangerous artifact from their Infinite Empire, this should be the next key. Go to Outpost Warhead, meet with the local Sith in charge, an ambitious and therefore potentially untrustworthy Sith named Inquisitor Quor. Be careful around Quor, he will certainly try to turn this event to his advantage, but be aware that the priority is getting the key from The Rakatans, do not waste our precious time on a feud with a power hungry nobody with a dead-end assignment on a backwater planet. I suspect swift results apprentice, do not fail me."

"I won't, Master." I bowed my head before my Master and watched as the hologram disappeared.

"So...what exactly is an Inquisitor?" Shallev asked, my companions had gathered around the back of the room in such a way where they could see the projection of Lord Thassite while still being far back enough to avoid showing up on my Master's own holo, my Master didn't necessarily need to know who my current companions were or that they were watching - obviously Lord Thassite knew about Pernox, they've meant on Korriban and on Manaan, but she wasn't aware of Lieutenant Warres and didn't need to be aware of him quite yet, nor would she need to be aware of any other potential companions who could join us on our various adventures throughout The Galaxy, but for now, it was just me, Pernox, and Lieutenant Warres, tasked by Lord Thassite to go to four planets at different corners of The Galaxy to track down ancient keys for a Rakatan vault on the sea floor of Manaan, we had just gotten the key on Tatooine and our current destination was Lehon, all of this was to be done with as much secrecy as possible to avoid drawing the attention of other Sith who could become very, very interested in the sealed vault containing this ancient Rakatan device, The Codex supercomputer that we were devoted to getting our hands on.

"A Sith Inquisitor has traditionally been responsible for preserving the sanctity of The Sith Empire: uncovering ancient secrets and destroying our enemies. In more recent history, Inquisitor has been used as a largely honorary title for Sith with more authority than an apprentice, but less than a Lord." Pernox explained, which I was thankful for given I personally hadn't known the answer before hand - having a fanatic that worships The Sith can certainly be very useful, in addition to her obvious talent in battle. Shallev was incredibly competent yet relaxed, very masterful with his twin blasters, and based on both his strong build and the armor weaved into his long overcoat, Lieutenant Warres was very sturdy in a fight, however, I still personally preferred Pernox as a companion. Pernox was a more versatile companion, she moved very quickly, her double-bladed vibrosword is a very effective weapon, and her stealth generator, in addition to being very useful in combat, gave us a lot of flexibility in terms of infiltration, retrieval, and assassin, for example, back on Manaan, I decided to go in disguised as a Republic trooper to get The Galactic Republic's sea floor maps, however, if I had decided to potentially risk Pernox being caught and thus injured or even killed in The Republic Embassy, I could've decided to take the risk and send in a cloaked Pernox to get the sea floor maps for me.

We had our mission, we had our destination, and we had our contact on Lehon, so it was time to set our destination on _The Black Shadow's_ navigational computer and rest for the night whilst waiting for our ship to arrive on the distant world.

* * *

I woke up after a good night's rest and got dressed in a clean set of robes, Lehon was a humid planet of islands so I decided to go with another set of the exposed robes, these were almost identical to the ones I wore on Tatooine except they were black and blue with some white trim, additionally, the belt had a less prominent buckle than the previous set, no longer a tall, triangular point to my navel. I still had some reservations over this particular style of robes but the facts remain that these are Sith fashion, they're a lot more comfortable than full, dark Sith robes in hot weather - I could appreciate the wind along my upper arms and my midriff - of planets such as Tatooine and Lehon, and my main concern on Tatooine was that my body would be more exposed to sandstorms - thankfully, I wasn't exposed to any of those whilst on the planet - but that wouldn't be an issue on Lehon's tropical archipelagoes. I was dressed, I was ready, and it was time to land on The Rakatan homeworld and continue my mission.

Dressed in the new but similar set of black, blue, and white robes - which admittedly complimented by blue Chiss skin - I walked into the cockpit of _The Black Shadow_ , Lieutenant Warres had now wisely decided to sit in the co-pilot's seat, allowing me to take the captain's seat, Pernox soon joined us and silently stood behind us, looking out the window past the twin prongs of our Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor to the blue orb below - Lehon. We slowly but surely lowered ourselves down to the planet below and eventually adjusting our course to reach Imperial Outpost Warhead itself. Lehon was an ocean planet, similar to Manaan, however, unlike Manaan, Lehon was dotted with numerous small, volcanic island chains. A curious feature of Manaan was that the surface was home to numerous ship wrecks because during the time of Revan's Sith Empire, the planet and its Star Forge served as the true capital - the official capital was Korriban - to that Empire nearly four centuries ago, and during Imperial rule, the planet was home to an immensely powerful disruptor field, meaning that in the distance, I could see capital ships that had nose-dived into the ocean, their rusting remains thrusting upwards out of the sea.

As we neared Outpost Warhead itself, we flew low over the particular archipelago that was relevant to our mission, I could see the outpost was a small installation built on the second smallest of the four islands, the smallest island seemed to be a buffer in between Imperial and Rakatan territory. The Rakatan village was a massive and ancient stone place, overgrown with tropical plants and moss, but I could tell that it was once a magnificent place lost to time, it was built on by far the largest of the four islands. The final island was the farthest from The Imperial outpost and was the second largest, it wasn't a particularly interesting island and it was mainly in the shadow of the larger island, except for one key feature, the titanic remains of a very old, very important space station - it appears that The Star Forge hadn't collapsed into the sun where it harvested it's energy from, not entirely at least, because a very, very large remain of The Star Forge was laying right here on an otherwise unimportant island - I could tell right then and there that The Star Forge ruins would definitely prove to be very crucial to my mission here, this space station almost lead to the collapse of The Galactic Republic four centuries ago and was right here, right where The Imperial outpost was and separated only by The Rakatan village that my key was on, The Force definitely has a purpose to cause events to unfurl in such a way.

"Imperial Outpost to Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor," this message came through the radio, I suppose that since this was a proper Imperial military installation rather than an occupied village like Mos Evenha, there was an actual landing protocol "Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor come in,"

"This is _The Black Shadow_ and my name is Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe, apprentice to Lord Thassite. I'm here on official Sith business." The Imperials often had no choice other than simply allowing The Sith free reign, but I still tried to answer the landing protocol to the best of my ability, I gave them the name of my ship - which I had uploaded to the ship's computer, meaning _The Black Shadow_ does indeed exist in The Imperial database - and I shared my name, as well as my reason for being on the planet, I admittedly didn't bother checking the official designation of this ship or learning the proper landing procedure when browsing through the ship's computers before going to bed while on route from Manaan to Tatooine. I hoped that a combination of The Sith's special privileges and what I had managed to share with the docking authorities would be enough.

"Very well my Lord," the docking official replied "Come in for a landing, welcome to Imperial Outpost Warhead."

I set _The Black Shadow's_ computers to do the landing on auto-pilot and simply waited as my Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor released it's landing gear, touched down to the circular metal pad built on a metal frame, securely holding the landing pad over a cliff side...at least I hoped the metal frame below the landing pad was sturdy enough to hold up my ship, I'd rather not have my ship fall into the ocean. In any case, I heard the distinctive hiss as the ship's landing was complete, the hydraulics within the landing gear had settled, and the entrance ramp had lowered down from the back of my ship. Pernox and Lieutenant Warres accompanied me as I left the ship and walked down that very same ramp that had just lowered and greeted The Imperial welcoming party, which thankfully was more friendly than the last Imperial welcoming party that I had encountered on Valken Spacedock just after arriving there with Pernox, proud to have survived my Sith Trials on Korriban but worried over what exactly it would mean to be Sith - something I was still worried over, but I've become far more comfortable with now that I've been exposed to The Sith way of life across my adventures on Korriban, The Imperial Fleet itself via my brief time on Valken Spacedock over Dromund Kaas, as well as my time on Manaan, Tatooine, and now here on Lehon.

"My Lord," I was greeted by a young orange-skinned Zabrak woman with black tattoos on her face, another example of the reluctant growth of diversity within The Sith Empire, I say reluctant because of The Sith Pureblood and human ruling class of The Empire absolutely abhor alien life but they're entirely aware that for this Empire to grow, or even to survive, they need to tolerate more and more aliens in more and more positions of power, whether it be a Sith like me or commanding officers like Major Zen'wa on Tatooine or this Zabrak woman here "My name is Captain Vulla, acting commander of Outpost Warhead, with all due respect, we need to ask, why are you here?"

"My name is Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe and I'm here looking for an ancient Rakatan relic. I was told by my Master that Inquisitor Quor would assist me." I answered truthfully and calmly, introducing myself and sharing the situational relevant details while maintain mission secrecy. I saw no reason to be cruel and vindictive like so many other Sith would be in such a situation, she was straight with me, spoke matter-of-factly, and I'm sure she'd help me in whatever way she could with whatever limited resources she and Inquisitor Quor had at their disposal. In fact, I was already grateful that at very least Captain Vulla and her soldiers were here, that meant that this was already going better than my time on Tatooine where I had to hunt down Major Zen'wa and rescue him from The Sand People before I could even begin to start attacking Karvora The Hutt's operations. Though, given I was being greeted by Captain Vulla rather than Inquisitor Quor, I had a sneaking suspicion that The Sith contact who was supposed to help me, wasn't going to be able to help me after all - wonderful, wonderful constant complications in my quest to open this damned Rakatan vault on Manaan.

"Oh," Captain Vulla seemed concerned, looks like I was right, Inquisitor Quor wasn't going to be able to help me on my mission "I'm afraid there have been complications with that, my Lord, may you please follow me to our command center so that we can discuss the state of affairs here on Lehon?"

"Very well Captain," I sighed as Captain Vulla, Lieutenant Warres, Pernox, and I walked down the ramp off of the landing pad and onto the island surface itself, The Imperial troopers who welcomed us marched off and returned to their posts. Imperial Outpost Warhead was a circular fortress with a large, underground central bunker that I had to assume was the command center, around the perimeter of the fort were a few armored buildings - perhaps that's where the observing scientists that Lord Thassite mentioned are operating from, or maybe they were merely military installations, I didn't know and quite frankly, those metal buildings weren't particularly important to me anyway - but the outpost was mostly small, standard Imperial military tents, one of which clearly served as a med-bay, the others seemed to be barracks for the soldiers and perhaps the scientists as well. The metal wall around the perimeter was roughly ten feet tall and bordered the base on three sides - obviously the cliff didn't need a wall as it was at the end of the island chain. The paths within the base were unpaved but well worn and beaten down, some less relevant areas of the base still had tall, loose strands of grass but they didn't compare to the tall grasses and tropical plants that I could see just outside of the currently opened gate of the outpost - a handful of black and red armored Imperial troopers stood at the open gate, prepared to give suppressing fire at whatever enemy force was attacking whilst the main gate was closed, a very simple but effective defensive choice. In any case, I followed Captain Vulla down a staircase into the underground bunker, which indeed was the command center.

The bunker was dimly lit and I could tell that the walls were thick, sturdy, and deep - it all felt rather constricting, a dark and thin underground corridor in extreme contrast to the bright tropical island paradise up above. The seemingly endless corridor was angled slightly downward, so every step took us deeper and deeper into the island - slowly but surely the cold, dark hallway got warmer and warmer, likely from the lingering volcanic activity of these islands. Thankfully, soon enough, the claustrophobic hallway opened up to the command center, which was a large, circular room with a central holoprojector adorned with the long, red Imperial banners that I had become accustomed to. The four of us gathered around the holoprojector, illuminated by the blue light from the projection of Lehon's globe, but it wasn't relevant to our topic, we were here to discuss Inquisitor Quor and thus, Captain Vulla turned off the holoprojector and left us in the actual light of the room, which was only somewhat better to the corridor we walked through. Though the lighting didn't matter, because right now, the four of us were all here and my companions and I needed to get our hands on this particular Rakatan vault key, with or without the help of this Inquisitor Quor that Lord Thassite had told me to contact: right now, it was discussion time.

"I have some bad news my Lord," Captain Vulla began, a grim expression on her orange Zabrak face with the wide, blocky black tattoos that were traditional among her species - she didn't wear an Imperial Officer's cap like Lieutenant Warres did, she couldn't as the other distinctive feature of The Zabrak were the short horns on their heads, she had shoulder length straight black hair coming down from between her horns "Inquisitor Quor has gone rogue, he's making some sort of power play and he disappeared, unfortunately, I don't know where he is, I don't know if he's even on the planet, for all I know, The Inquisitor is lying dead somewhere. I'm sorry to tell you that he won't be able to help you."

"That's very unfortunate," so much for a simple mission like Lord Thassite told me to expect "Well, perhaps you can help me."

"What exactly is the mission, my Lord? You mentioned a Rakatan relic?" Vulla asked, I could definitely understand why she'd need to know more, so I'd share as much as I could without outright revealing what exactly I'm looking for, or exactly why I'm looking for it, because the more people who know about this Rakatan vault on Manaan, the higher the chances that a rival Sith or perhaps even The Republic, or even another rival force entirely can stumble upon our prize. The Sith Empire isn't a particularly honorable place, if another Lord learns about our schemes, they'll try to oppose us and take it for themselves, if a Darth learns about this vault, they'll take all the contents for themselves and we won't have any platform to stand on, you simply can't oppose a Darth within The Sith Empire unless you're also a Darth, it has been done before, but these are very, very rare, and very, very extreme cases, in fact, there are only two such cases in recent history - one, The Emperor's Wrath, obviously had the support of The Sith Emperor himself, at the time at least, allowing her to oppose Darth Baras, two, the rise of Darth Imperius, who, back when she was a mere Lord, was betrayed by a Dark Councilor, Darth Thanaton, however, Imperius won the battle and took his seat due to her cunning and unprecedented us of binded Force Ghosts, a process that nearly killed her. Opposing a Darth was way out of our league, so in order for Lord Thassite and I to succeed, we had to do everything, and I mean everything, in our power to keep from a higher ranking Sith from stumbling upon our scheme to open The Rakatan vault on Manaan.

"The Rakatan village in this island chain reportedly possess an artifact that my Master and I are looking for, we need to get our hands on it." That seemed to be enough info for The Imperial Officer to go on.

"We've been having trouble with The Rakatan villagers lately," Captain Vulla admitted "Ever since Inquisitor Quor disappeared, they've gotten more vicious, attacking our outpost more and more, we just don't have the military grunt to launch a real offensive against them. When The Inquisitor was here, they stayed away, they were peaceful...I suspect that they feared The Sith and have now somehow learned that he's gone, so now, they know we've vulnerable and have become emboldened. That's why we have more soldiers on guard and have increased security - hence disturbing you with protocol during your arrival - we can't attack The Rakata on our own, but now, with you and your allies here, we can - "

Vulla was interrupted by the klaxon blaring throughout the base, we were shrouded in blaring red light. The four of us rushed through the long hallway to get to the surface - as we got closer and closer to the surface I could hear battle cries, blaster fire, and even some explosions, these sounds could only mean one thing - we were under attack. We finally got out of the corridor and back into natural sunlight, climbing the ramp up to the surface proper, emerging from the darkness of the bunker into the heart of a battle. I stood in my black and blue robes with my midriff and upper arms exposed, glowing red eyes below my black Sith hood as I grabbed my purple lightsaber in my left handed and ignited it, I was a Sith. I looked into the scared face of the enemy, The Rakata, shattered remnants of a once great Empire that ruled the entire galaxy, reduced to a near extinct race of tribal people limited to just the planet of Lehon, I saw the tall, scale-covered face of a fishy being with their eyes on stalks on the side of their head - The Rakata were very alien beings, far from the traditional humanoid figure. The stunned faced of the first Rakata I saw raised his blaster rifle at me and attempted to fire, but it was all for naught, I raised my right hand and eliminated the enemy Rakata with a burst of purple Force Lightning - The Inquisitor may have been gone, but these raiding Rakatan villagers were facing a Sith yet again, and I was going to leave Lehon with the second vault key, no matter what.

With the very first Rakatan electrocuted and dead, I turned my attention to a larger group - meanwhile Lieutenant Warres and Pernox both sprang into action, Shallev gunning down a group to your left with his twin blaster pistols whilst Pernox cloaked herself and began clearing out The Rakatans from Imperial Outpost Warhead behind us - I turned my attention to the next group, the group running up the hill towards the gate into the outpost, I took a deep breathe and allowed The Force to flow through me, the energy coursing through my veins, my power bubbling up to the surface before I shocked that entire group with a well timed and well executed use of Chain Lightning, a bolt of fatal electricity going from my finger tips to the very first Rakata, then the lightning went through him and into his comrade, and then from that one comrade to the next, and the next, until that whole particular group was dead. A few more of the alien raiders turned their attention to me and I quickly worked towards dispatching them, one I took down with Force Lightning, the one next to him was killed by a quick and fatal Shock, I turned over my right shoulder to another group - I may have ignited my lightsaber when I exited the bunker, but I hardly even needed it, The Force was my weapon - another one of the gray skinned fish creatures dropped dead after being hit by my Lightning Strike, his friend was blown into the wall behind them, I was nearly grazed by some blaster rifle fire by another group, but it wasn't enough, because I was in a rhythm right now, I was one with The Force and The Force was with me - I fried that entire group dead with a powerful Force Storm.

I heard a way cry behind me and turned over my left shoulder as quickly as I could, but I turned too late, a tall and vicious Rakatan warrior with a long and crude, yet deadly staff had knocked me to the ground - suddenly, I wasn't in a rhythm anymore, I liked to fight with The Force, but right now, I was mere inches away from the fishy brute - I would have to fight with my purple lightsaber after all. I rose my blade against his before he could deliver a killing blow, but he was stronger than me, much stronger, I could see both blades inching closer and closer to my face...I could feel the hot plasma of my lightsaber as it got close, close, close, too close! I couldn't do anything here, I was laying on the ground and holding a lightsaber against an enemy that is not only stronger than me, but currently has leverage on his side, however, I had one advantage on my side that this particular Rakata warrior didn't - I had companions. I watched as the brute was suddenly pushed backwards and away from me, he stumbled as Pernox uncloaked herself and swung her double-bladed vibrosword across his chest, he screamed in pain but Pernox wasn't done yet, she turned him around, impaled him through the spine with the rear blade of her weapon, and then her robes leg kicked his corpse down to the ground - Pernox stood triumphantly, having won yet another battle.

Pernox helped me to my feet, Shallev returned to my side, and Captain Vulla joined us as we watched the remaining Rakata forces retreat and run away from Outpost Warhead - their brute leader and so many other Rakata were lying dead - we had won!

* * *

Alrighty folks, another chapter done and another arc started - I'm aware that these three arcs of three in a row is getting a bit repetitive, but don't worry, a standalone chapter is coming in the very near future to help break up the momentum a little bit, we just need to do this Lehon arc first, two more chapters guys, bare with me! For those of you who have read this very, thank you very, very much and I sincerely hope you continue to read, review, and enjoy!

I love you all, peace out!


	13. Executing a Counterattack on The Rakata

Alright, it's time for the second chapter of the Lehon arc, and chapter thirteen of the whole story, so if you've made it this far, just so you know, you're my favorites!. On that happy note, as always, I hope you read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XIII.

Executing a Counterattack on The Rakata.

* * *

The Rakata raiding party had been repelled, but their blitz attack was certainly costly, especially given that my companions and I were deep underground in the command center at the time - along with Captain Vulla, meaning that The Imperial troops were leaderless and directionless without their commanding officer at such a crucial time - but we had turned the tide, however, that didn't change the fact that Outpost Warhead was weakened, not quite defenseless yet but certainly vulnerable to attack...I knew that I was only here for the second Rakatan vault key, but what would happen to the people who helped me after I left? They were supposed to be under the protection of Inquisitor Quor, but he's gone rogue, I suppose this meant that the pragmatic solution would be this: when I went to The Rakatan village to get my key, I would have to eliminate the village's ability to fight - but then, once The Imperials were back up to strength, they would simply wipe out the native population of these islands, I didn't want that to happen either. The fact that The Rakata here on these islands were openly hostile would certainly complicate things, but I would still try to resolve the situation with a peaceful solution, but before that, I'd have to get into The Rakata village, which was no doubt guarded, the guards would no doubt fire at me on sight, meaning that I'd have to fight back...I'd put myself into the very uncomfortable situation of trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution to this conflict after wiping out their entire defensive force.

"My Lord," Captain Vulla addressed me, I turned to face the orange skinned Zabrak officer "I know you suspect that the relic you're looking for is in The Rakatan village, but we've never had the resources to fight them, especially not know with our troops devastated by this raid, I regret to inform you that, if you're going to assault their village, you're going to be on your own."

"I understand Captain," I replied respectfully "Tend to your wounded, try to bring the base back on its feet."

"Yes my Lord," she bowed her head and walked over to the tent acting as a med bay, now it was wide open and I could see and hear the injured troops being tended to by medical droids, by the scientists stationed here to observe The Rakata, and by field medics, everyone who could provide even the slightest bit of first aid was there to assist the wounded - I knew that I could heal with The Force I'd go and help out at the medical bay once I had the chance, meanwhile, I had to tell my companions to prepare for a particularly difficult battle, the raiding party was just a taste of what The Rakata could throw at us and this time, we wouldn't have the support of The Imperials from Outpost Warhead. I walked over to my companions, Pernox and Lieutenant Warres, my first two real allies and we had fought quite a few battles here and before hand on Tatooine, but this one, this attack on The Rakata village, I had a feeling that this would be a very difficult fight, this would be a whole different scene than what we've seen thus far.

"We need to get ready for a big fight," I told my companions "Rearm, reload, do whatever you need to do in order to be ready, because that raiding party was a dangerous opponent and now, they'll be expecting us."

"We'll ready up, don't worry," Lieutenant Warres assured me.

"We shall crush them Gl'ickeneose," Pernox replied before the duo left and returned to _The Black Shadow_ to prepare for war, meanwhile, I walked over to the medical tent so that I could help out. I entered the tent and saw the wounded soldiers, I heard their screams and pained moans, I saw bandages being wrapped, bones getting set, Kolto being injected, and wounds being stitched up - blaster wounds would cauterize themselves, but vibrosword wounds were dangerous and bloody - I walked over to a particularly wounded soldier and held my hand over her wound, I closed my eyes and focused on healing, I could feel The Force flowing through me and I knew that I could heal her - I gently touched my hand to the wound itself and I felt the damage repair itself, the skin pulled itself back together, and the pain dissipated. She was healed and she thanked me, I merely smiled back and continued to help heal the troops that weren't getting proper medical attention yet - and the amazing thing is, every time a trooper was healed, they were legitimately surprised that a Sith would do such a thing, they'd thank me, but then, they'd go and assist the others with recovery, speeding up the process for everyone. I healed six Imperial troopers in total before I was confident that Outpost Warhead's staff was capable of finishing the job, at which point, I began to leave the medical tent when I was stopped by Captain Vulla.

"You didn't have to do that, my Lord," she told me.

"I know, but I could've helped, and therefore, I did." I replied.

"Thank you, my Lord," she bowed her head "Good luck with The Rakatan relic you're looking for."

I left the tent, happy with what I've done and walked back out into the outpost, some of the few troops who weren't injured and couldn't help took the precaution of locking down the main gate - which for whatever reason they failed to do before the assault - I walked back to the landing pad and waited just outside of _The Black Shadow_ for my companions to be ready, I sat down on the metal ground and meditated, I could feel the salty sea wind against me, I could feel each and every strand of fabric in my black and blue robes, I could sense each and every trooper here at Outpost Warhead, I could sense The Rakatan village and I could sense a deep, dark presence - the very same presence I felt down below on Manaan and radiating from the first key I recovered from Tatooine, the second key was definitely at The Rakatan village - but overshadowing all of that was a stronger darkness, an ancient Dark Side power distorting everything near it, creating almost a haze of The Force over the distant fourth island, this darkness was so strong that I couldn't sense anything else on that island - it was the ruin I saw during my approach to Outpost Warhead, it was The Star Forge.

Meditating upon The Force allowed for hyperawareness, I could feel so much, see so much, even anticipate certain events - The Force was an incredible ability and I had an incredible grasp over it, I could feel Pernox's footsteps coming down the ramp off of the ship before they occurred, in fact, if I wanted to, I could tap into Shallev's mind as The Lieutenant followed her down the ramp, I could poke around his brain and read his thoughts - not that I wanted to, that would be an utter invasion of privacy against my companion - but I couldn't tap into Pernox's mind even if I tried, her knowledge of The Sith and of The Force was more than comprehensive, she evidently knows so much about The Force that she can shield her mind, though I had to wonder, was she doing that voluntarily or involuntarily? Perhaps Pernox set up those walls unknowingly, or perhaps she knows that The Sith can be intrusive and dig into her mind, perhaps even plant thoughts - but as I said, I would never do that. I opened my eyes and rose to my feet, my companions were ready and I know our key was here, it was time to go to the village, it was time to finish our mission on Lehon.

"Are you ready?" I asked as I turned to face my companions.

"Always," Pernox answered and she meant it, she was fiercely loyal and fiercely competent in battle - she saved my live from the brutish Rakata during the raid on the outpost after all. The tall, robed Kaleesh assassin with her double-bladed vibrosword and her stealth generator was very, very versatile in combat, she was a master with her weapon, her willpower was unmatched, and she could take plenty of hits despite only wearing regular robes rather than any sort of truly combat ready armor. I was able to defeat her back on Korriban in The Tomb of Ajunta Pall only because I could use The Force to sense her when she's using her stealth generator, but if I didn't have The Force or if Pernox was able to physically shield herself from The Force just like she did with her mind, she would've certainly beat me - Pernox was a substantially better fighter than I was, she was faster and stronger, however, my one advantage, The Force, cancelled out her main advantage and I was able to catch her off guard - I was very thankfully that Pernox was my companion, not only because of how utterly useful she was in battle, but because, if she was my enemy, she would _not_ make that same mistake again.

"My blasters are loaded and my trigger finger's itching," Lieutenant Warres was by no means an ordinary Imperial Officer, he had his vices, he had a rather blatant disrespect for authority, and he fancied himself more of a gunslinger than a soldier, but in spite of that - or perhaps rather, because of that - Shallev was a much more capable fighter than The Imperial Troopers that have filled up the med-bay here, he was a sharpshooter with his twin blaster pistols, now, holding those heavy pistols with one hand each and taking the recoil should mean that he's much less accurate than The Imperials holding their standard issue blaster rifles, however, Shallev hits incredibly quickly and incredibly accurately - I suspected that this said just as much about the quality of The Sith Empire's standard issue equipment as it said about Lieutenant Warres's own talents, however, that's not to discredit my other companion, Shallev is a very, very good shot and he, despite his reputation, is indeed an Imperial Officer for a reason, he has links to The Imperial Military, he has significant knowledge of the intricate workings of The Imperial parts of The Sith Empire, while Pernox and I were both much more focused on The Sith parts of The Empire, additionally, Lieutenant Warres has served in enough battles on the ground that he's become a rather experienced tactician. I didn't personally live a lifestyle like Shallev - though I wouldn't judge his either, it wasn't my place to do so - but I trusted him at my side.

A Chiss Sith apprentice, a Kaleesh assassin with a fanatical obsession with The Sith, a disgruntled Human Imperial Lieutenant gunslinger, we were a very unlikely trio, all of different species, all of different backgrounds, all with different interests and lifestyles, we were very different people, but circumstances have united us and we've become true allies at this point. I was in tune with The Force, my companions were armed to the teeth, and it was time to head for The Rakatan village and get our second key. I had gotten too cocky in our first battle with The Rakatans, I was using my Force Lightning to tear apart their weak grunts and had gotten on a power trip, I didn't notice that hulking brute approaching me, in my hubris I had nearly lost the fight, hell, I had nearly lost my life - The Rakatan would've killed me if Pernox didn't step in to save my life - I had to imagine that at the actual village, there would be many, many more warriors like that brute rather than these mere grunts, surely The Rakata would keep their mightiest warriors in reserve to guard their own territory rather than on raids on a weak and relatively defenseless Imperial Outpost - after all, The Rakata were expecting to raid an outpost that didn't have a Sith there, they had heard that Inquisitor Quor was gone - though, surely they would've noticed my Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor as I flew over their island in my approach to Outpost Warhead, but perhaps these isolated Rakata didn't realize that these ships were favored by The Sith - in fact, they may have suspected that my ship was arriving to resupply the outpost, perhaps they raided because of my arrival, rather than in spite of it.

We walked off of the landing pad and through the base itself, The Imperials opened the gate for us and we walked out onto the island proper for the first time, this was the real Lehon. The dry grass of Outpost Warhead was replaced by healthy, tall grasses and tropical plants - massive and exotic colors of every color you could possibly imagine, there were reds, blues, oranges, yellows, purples, whites, and greens - in addition, there were quite a few palm trees and volcanic rocks around the islands, this meant that Lehon was incredibly naturally beautiful. My native V'aran'abb was long grasslands - trees and plants couldn't grow because of the constant layer of permafrost - and distant, icy mountains, it was a cold and impoverished world, if the planet ever had any resources, they were stripped away a very long time ago. Korriban has an arid world of tall and rocky mountains with the occasional valley or canyon in between, Manaan was constant, uninterrupted ocean with the exotic beauty of the sea floor hidden away from few, and Tatooine was nothing more than a world of sand, comparatively speaking, Lehon could be considered a tropical paradise, I say _could_ because of the lingering presence of The Dark Side and the hostile Rakatan natives - not to mention that the views of the sunset on the beaches was ruined by the wreckage of starships.

The three of us followed the well beaten, well travelled path from The Imperial fortress downhill and around the island, Outpost Warhead was at the highest point of the island just against the cliffs, meaning that, despite this being the second smallest island, I still had to travel downward quite a bit - the three main islands were all very large, especially the one with The Rakatan village on it, but the smallest island, the intermediate island between our island and the big Rakatan one was significantly smaller than the others, realistically serving only as a sort of buffer zone between them. As we walked farther and farther along the sunny, tropical path, I got very grateful that I was wearing these midriff and upper arm revealing black and blue robes, they allowed for a lot more ventilation and meant that I was able to sweat less than I would otherwise wearing a set of the full, dark Sith robes - I had to imagine that Pernox in her robes and Shallev in his heavy longcoat were sweating quite a bit in these hot and humid conditions, though, given that we survived the scorching, dry heat of Tatooine, we could survive Lehon's humidity, but that didn't meant that it was going to be comfortable.

We followed the path downwards as it slowly but surely turned from a well travelled dirt path into a sandy beach, I could see the entire small intermediate island and beyond that, I could see another path going uphill on The Rakatan island. The sand on Tatooine was rough and course, but this white sand on the beach was smoother, gentler - I preferred it. Three sets of boot footprints left an impression on the beach as Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I walked towards the narrow body of water in between the islands. The sand at the end of the beach was darker, more solid, because it was wet due to the waves coming in and out, in and out, all through the day - given how little water was between the island and how long the wet section was, I had to imagine that this was low tide, which is good, because we'd need to cross the gap on foot. I took a deep breath and sensed the water below, this small strait - even that's being generous - was only two feet deep at most, with a layer of sand and shells at the bottom - we could gross this rather confidently. My black and blue boots stepped under the water, I could feel my boots and the robes above them growing soaked, I had to imagine that Shallev and Pernox felt the same way as we crossed through the water - thankfully the water here in this section was rather calm, we weren't being pushed over by dramatic waves or anything like that - fortunately, what I sensed was correct, the water wasn't any deeper than about two feet, but given that I wasn't all that much more taller than five feet, that meant that a considerable amount of my lower robe and my boots below were completely soaked - which made the robes much heavier, especially given that, after we crossed this small island, we'd need to go through the water yet again before walking up a rather considerably tall hill.

We walked along the sandy, beach-covered island, we reached the peak, about twenty feet above the beach and covered in only a small amount of grass and only a handful of small plants - a far cry from the massive and colorful plants I saw along the path from Outpost Warhead. The three of us walked back down the beach on the other side, reaching the watery gap between this island and The Rakatan one, this gap was slightly larger than the other one, which meant that it could be somewhat deeper, however, hopefully, the water wasn't significantly deeper. I tapped into The Force once again and felt for the sandy ground below the salty water, fortunately for us, this water wasn't all that much deeper than the last section, around two and half, perhaps three, feet deep, in any case, I grabbed my lightsaber off of the belt on my hip - I couldn't afford having my lightsaber float away at any point, especially not when I'm suspecting considerable resistance from The Rakatan villagers awaiting me at their stone fortress at the top of the very next island. Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I waded through the water and came back out on the next beach, now, we were in enemy territory, we were on The Rakatan island.

Our legs were soaked, our equipment was wet and heavy, and our boots were sloshing when we came out of the water, we had to take a moment to recollect ourselves - I let my bare blue feet touch the hot sand as I emptied the water from my boots, my companions did the same. I found a rather mundane use for The Force as I blew the sand off of my feet before putting my boots back on, Pernox didn't mind the sand, her skin was thick and scaly, a few grains would hardly affect her, meanwhile, Shallev decided to be a bit more...creative - he sat down on the beach and awkwardly kept his feet up as he put his boots back on, but it worked, I guess. We had all come up with different solutions for that particular setback, but now, we had overcome it and it was time to continue onwards, we had a mission to do and we better get to it as quickly as possible - the survivors of the raiding party had no doubt returned to The Rakatan village, the villagers knew that they were once again dealing with a Sith, which meant they were preparing for a defensive battle - every moment we wasted was another moment that our enemy had to prepare and entrench themselves, we had to get to The Rakatan village as quickly as physically possible.

Now that we had gathered together, we all continued up the path, we walked up the hill towards the top of the island, The Rakatan village, which I saw during my fly over was built on the summit of the extinct volcano that formed the island - The Rakatans wanted the high ground when they built their village, it made sense in terms of defense, likely the same reason why Outpost Warhead was so high up against the cliff face, making the location hard to reach was one advantage, being safe from an attack from above was another, the combination of both of these made The Rakatan village difficult to assault without the enemy expecting us, but now that they were definitely expecting us and already preparing for war, that just meant our attack would be all that much harder, even if The Rakatans at the village weren't as elite as the raiding party we faced - however, I was expecting that, given The Rakatans were expecting that Outpost Warhead would be an easy target without protection from Inquisitor Quor, I had to imagine that the raiding party isn't all that elite compared to what this race that once ruled the entire Galaxy had in reserve, but we shall see when we reach The Rakatan village itself.

We followed the path to its highest point, however, we were on the opposite end of the island from The Rakatan village, separated by the peak of the extinct volcano. We'd have to continue the path as it went back down and curved back around the island, however. from up here, we had an excellent view of the black metal ruins of The Star Forge, the device which harvested energy directly from Lehon's sun, however, when Revan destroyed The Star Forge, the ancient space factory didn't fall into the star that it was powered by, rather it was dragged back to Lehon somehow - strange given that the gravity field was deactivated before Revan even reached The Star Forge, but given that the space station was fueled by The Dark Side itself - well not only fueled by it, because The Star Forge thrived off of The Dark Side, generated more of it, The Star Forge and anyone using it were trapped in a feedback loop of The Dark Side, corrupting both even more - I had to suspect that The Star Forge ending up back here was The Force at work, and, given that my mission to collect the vault keys happened to bring me to these very islands as well, I had to expect that I wouldn't be able to leave Lehon without visiting The Star Forge ruins...The Force definitely works in mysterious ways. I shook off the ominous feeling of darkness resonating from the ruins and lead my companions back down the path to The Rakatan Village as it curved along another beachfront, this one in between this island and the island covered in ruins.

Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I walked the path down the hill and watched as the road hooked left at the bottom of the hill next to the beach before gently rising again as it continued to curve left on the far side of the island. We followed the path as it leveled out next to the beach, however, I had noticed something very, very strange in the distance. I saw two distinct wakes in the water between the islands, that must have meant that there was something large moving just under the surface - because obviously there was no boat here to cause the wake, let alone to cause two - it couldn't have been a very large fish, they wouldn't go this close to the shore, so, the three of us stopped, stood still and silent, and watched this disturbance in the water. Out of the water between this island and the island covered in The Star Forge ruins rose two quadrupedal battle droids, they were massive, heavily armed, and looked completely foreign to me, their curvy and silver design was distinctly different from the blockier, cheaper, more pragmatic designs from The Galactic Republic and from The Sith Empire, and they had far more advanced droids than the other factions in The Galaxy, with the rare exception of certain gems within certain organizations, such as Karvora The Hutt's droid, HK-57, given his owner and the unique designation, I had to assume that HK-57 was, at least for now, one-of-a-kind - I say _was_ for a reason, given that I destroyed both the assassin droid and The Terentatek in Karvora's Palace.

These tall and unique quadrupedal battle droids saw us, they took a moment to register, meanwhile, none of the three of us moved an inch, because if we did, these droids could register that as a hostile motion, however, it was all for naught, the droids recognized us as hostile and spooled up their twin assault cannons - four assault cannons total - it was time to move, it was time to fight. The three of us scattered, which was a good decision because the spot where we were standing was bombarded away by four full automatic cannons launching giant explosive shells, I got a good line of sight on one of the droids and stunned the droid with well placed electricity, but that caught the attention of the other one, who turned to shoot at me - fortunately, the droid's programming evidently wasn't perfect, because it failed to realize the assault cannon in its right arm was lined up perfectly with the torso of his companion, the other one was still lined up with me - I ran as the battle droid opened fire, bisecting his stunned ally at the waste, however, these droids were designed well, they'd operate as long as they could while their processors were intact, so we were fighting one fully operational droid and the detached but more than lethal torso of another. I covered both of the droids with a Force Storm while Shallev loaded them with laser fire from his twin blaster pistols, Pernox meanwhile, was using her stealth generator and giving the droids a wide berth, she didn't know if the droids would be able to detect her through the stealth generator and she didn't have any ranged capabilities - Pernox would have to be cautious during this battle. The two droids were seriously struggling with their programming due to all the electricity overloading their circuitry, but they weren't out of the fight yet, I lifted the intact droid up high - he was confused, he wasn't programmed for fighting from above, I had him beat - I levitated him over a large volcanic rock and slammed him down on it - the force which I slammed him down with showered the area with his pieces, he wasn't in fighting condition anymore, but he was technically still alive, we'd have to destroy his processor.

However, since I was distracted, the other droid, the remaining torso, managed to line up one of his assault cannons with my position, he opened fire - his aim was erratic because he wasn't grounded properly, the recoil was dragging him backwards through the beach sand - however, some of those fully automatic explosions made it dangerously close to me, once again, just like I was when The Terentatek threw his massive piece of a pillar at me, I was stumbling disoriented while my enemy seemed to be gaining the upper hand, however, this time, I had companions. Lieutenant Warres drew the droid's fire with his blasters while Pernox closed in using her stealth generator, it seems that the droid either didn't have a way to detect her, or lost it between his explosive bisection or the significant amounts of lightning I launched at him. I was just gaining my composure again as Pernox pulled the droid backwards, it's assault cannon fire hit the peak and then fired into the air rather than at my companions, now that we were safe, Pernox stabbed the rear blade of her double-bladed vibrosword through the droid's eye and into his processor, killing him for good - meanwhile, Shallev filled the processor of the other droid with twin blaster fire, both of these droids were dead and they were dead for good. This was just yet another obstacle on our path to collecting all four of the keys to The Rakatan vault on the bottom of Manaan's sea floor, and, just like every other obstacle we've encountered so far, we've survived it.

We got ourselves back together and continued up the path - I didn't know where these droids came from or why they were here, but given that they presumably came from the island covered in The Star Forge ruins and came to The Rakatan island, I was suspecting that these heavily armed droids were here to attack The Rakatan village as well, and because of where they came from, I had to imagine that these droids were linked to The Star Forge ruins as well, perhaps they were survivors of Revan's reign...but then why were they only just coming out now? Maybe they weren't four hundred year old relics, perhaps The Star Forge ruins were still operational...but was The Star Forge doing this on their own? Or has someone taken over these ruins? I didn't know, but like I've suspected, I had to imagine that my mission here and the presence of The Star Forge was no coincidence, I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that its destiny, but who knows why The Force resulted in this - however, given the circumstances, I was expecting that sooner than later, I was going to figure out. Though, that would come later, if at all, for now, however, my objective was to recover the second vault key, and that was exactly what I was going to do as Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I walked up the hill to The Rakatan village itself, we were almost there.

We came up to the top of the hill and finally saw The Rakatan village itself, there was a tall and towering stone wall around the village with two circular towers at the corners of the base, a large closed gate was directly ahead along the path, however, we weren't going to be able to enter the village quite yet, because The Rakatans were defending it very well. Firstly, I saw on both sides of the path that there were two trench lines of five Rakatan soldiers each, that meant that twenty soldiers - ten from each side of the path, five from each trench - would open fire on us, secondly, in front of the door itself was another one of the massive brutes that had nearly killed me during the raid on Imperial Outpost Warhead, he would be very, very dangerous. The third and final line of exterior defense was perhaps the most dangerous, I saw a massive piece of artillery on the top of each of the circular towers on the two corners in front of us, they were massive cannons manned by equally massive crews. Twenty ground soldiers, a massive brute, and two titanic cannons, I'd need to face all of that before I could even open the gate into the village itself, this was going to be a very, very difficult fight.

The Rakatans opened fire, Pernox shimmered out of sight and Shallev took cover, but I had to take down the biggest threat to us. I focused on a very distant Rakatan who was part of one of the artillery crews, I took a deep breath and let The Force flow through me, coming through my veins and into my arms where I could direct The Force Lightning outwards, I felt the power bubbling at my fingertips and then I unleashed it, I directed Chain Lightning at that distant Rakatan and eliminated that entire artillery crew - the cannon was still operational, but there was nobody to operate it, that would have to do for now. I turned to the second of the two cannons and watched it fire, my eyes opened wide in fear as I saw the shell spinning through the rifled barrel, but I did something on pure instinct, I rose my hand and Force pushed the artillery shell back into the cannon - the shell exploded against the firing pin and destroyed the cannon, blowing up and killing the entire crew that was manning it, the biggest threat to us, the artillery cannons, were dealt with, now we just had twenty soldiers and a massive brute to deal with...wonderful, I wish I could say that it was going to be easy.

The Rakatan brute rushed me, this time, at very least, I was somewhat prepared - I pulled my purple lightsaber to my left hand with The Force whilst I rose my right hand to the brute and shot him with Force Lightning, but it hardly slowed him down, so I upped the intensity and filled him with more and more Lightning, however, the brute was still charging at me with incredible speed, so I side-stepped his charge and turned my lightsaber into his path - he let out and deep and painful scream as I cut into his thigh and left a deep, cauterized wound. I knew that the beast was about to turn around and attack me with his vibro-pike weapon, I had to make sure that he wouldn't attack me though, I gave a quick Force Push to knock him backwards, however, the brute was heavy and despite the strength of my push, I wasn't able to move him farther than about twenty feet and I wasn't able to knock him over, it seems that the fight would go on longer than I wanted after all. I used a quick attack of Lightning to electrocute the brute, he screamed a deep and guttural cry, but again, it didn't seem to actually do much in terms of keeping him from fighting - luckily I wasn't getting shot very much from behind, Lieutenant Warres and Pernox were doing a very good job of drawing the attention of those twenty entrenched Rakatan soldiers while I was dealing with this brute, unfortunately, that also meant that I was all alone with actually fighting and defeating this very angry and very hostile fish creature. I rose both hands - while keeping my purple lightsaber ignited, crossing it over my right arm and raising a few of my left fingers so that I could launch lightning from that hand as well, meanwhile, my lightsaber balanced on my thumb and kept in place by my pointer finger - and once again filled the brute with Force Lightning, I was pushing myself to the limit and filling him with more lightning than was probably safe to have flowing through me, but it was necessary. I listened as his battle cry turned into a painful, dying scream as he was electrocuted before my eyes, but he wasn't dying as fast as I needed him to, I was losing control...I screamed as a painful amount of energy ripped through my arms before ripping through my fingers with so much intensity that my lightsaber fell to the ground - deactivating without pressure on the button from either a finger or, if I was to throw my lightsaber, pressure from The Force - but that painful power hurt the brute more than it hurt me, it electrocuted him and launched him off of the hill, his corpse eventually hit the ground somewhere down the path. I fell to the ground and tried to catch my breath and recover some energy, the battle still raging behind me.

Eventually, I was able to recover from overexerting myself - I still felt my arms transitioning from burning pain to numbness, but I had lead my companions into a battle and had to help them with it, even if I wasn't sure how much I could do with The Force after wasting so much energy on the two battle droids, then on the two artillery pieces, and now on The Rakatan brute, but I had to at least get into the fight to draw some of the fire off of Pernox and Lieutenant Warres - I grabbed my black, four-pronged lightsaber hilt off of the ground and ignited the purple blade as I ran to the trenches and leaped down into the same one that Pernox was clearing. I cut through one of The Rakatans with my lightsaber and brought the glowing purple sword down through another - Pernox had already killed two of them and I used The Force to push the last Rakatan of this trench into Pernox's deadly blade. I grimaced in pain as The Force Push caused a sharp pain to echo through my veins, I couldn't use The Force anymore in this fight - I was hardly an expert with a lightsaber, but for the rest of this fight, I had to depend on my limited skills as a swordswoman, because right now, I had depleted myself in terms of The Force, I already needed time to recover and we haven't even breached the village itself yet.

I wasn't able to fight at my maximum, but I wasn't alone. I climbed out of this trench while Pernox followed, Shallev had already cleared the one on the opposite side all by himself, so now, we were reunited, two trenches remained, but I was with my companions now, they would hardly be a threat now. The three of us cleared the last two trenches, we had won the battle outside of The Rakatan village, but the entire village stood between us and our second key.

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Well this was longer than I was expecting, sorry! Don't worry, the next chapter _should_ be closer to our usual length. Please continue to read, review, and enjoy!

I love you all, peace!


	14. Oligations to The Light Side

Alright, here we go, this is the last chapter of the Lehon arc and, like I teased a couple of chapters ago, the next chapter will break up the arc structure a little bit and introduce a pretty major subplot - but that's all you're getting, no spoilers! Anyway, thanks for reading all of these chapters so far, I'm very grateful and I hope that you guys continue to read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XIV.

Obligations to The Light Side of The Force.

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I absolutely drained myself in the battle outside of the village, to have to electrocute that Rakatan brute after dealing with those strange amphibious quadrupedal battle droids and then a long distance Force Lightning attack on one of the artillery installations and an equally long distance Force Push on the other, all not too long after using The Force to help defend Imperial Outpost Warhead, I was completely and utterly drained from all this heavy Force use, yet now, I had to actually enter the village and cleared it out in order to get the second vault key in order to open the underwater door on Manaan and get to The Codex. I wasn't quite ready to enter the village and another fight quite yet, when I tried to shoot Force Lightning or even a Force Push, I felt a deep and sharp pain echoing through my veins, I was completely fatigued and I needed at least a few minutes to rest and to try and muster together some more energy to use The Force - I knew that I was giving The Rakatans within the base even more time to prepare for my entrance, I knew that they now had a chance to adjust their tactics, entrench themselves, and plan contingency plans, but I needed to be able to fight back - I'd rather have The Force in a difficult battle than to be without it in an easy battle, because quite frankly, I was a one trick Sith, I had my Force Lightning and a handful of other Force attacks, but I was still a young Sith, inexperienced and refusing to tap into raw, primal Dark Side power like so many other young apprentices in my position would - instead, I would cling to The Light Side and develop my powers with time, practice, and endurance, until then, I knew that I was very much at risk of utterly draining myself, just as I had now. Therefore, in order to try and regain some energy, I sat down on the dirt path just like I had at Outpost Warhead before Lieutenant Warres, Pernox, and I embarked on this mission, I sat on the ground and I meditated once again, reaching out for The Force and hoping that I could muster together some more energy again.

Sat on the ground with my eyes closed, I meditated on The Force, I was reaching out, hoping to draw in some more energy, some more power so that I could force myself through that village and getting my damned key. However, we were much closer to The Star Forge this time, I felt trapped, surrounded by and thick and intrusive fog of The Dark Side, I could feel the inner draw to that power, the deep base instinct to use The Dark Side now and worry about the risks later, but, I knew better, I knew that The Dark Side was addictive, I knew that it was the easy way - if you use The Dark Side once, you'll want to use it every time you meet an obstacle, it's too easy, too lazy - I knew that most of the powers that I used were associated with The Sith and therefore, The Dark Side, Force Lightning in particular is a trademark Sith power, however, that doesn't mean that I have to draw on The Dark Side to use it - though, I did accidently draw on my rage, pain, and on the darkness when fighting that Sith Pureblood acolyte so long ago on Korriban, something that I instantly regretted - but otherwise, when I use Force Lightning, it's fueled by my own power, not on this crutch that is The Dark Side. I was determined to remain on The Light Side of The Force, therefore, I reached beyond the intrusive fog of The Dark Side, I reached for the distant presence of The Light Side of The Force and I tapped into that energy - with my eyes closed and my mind in a deep state of meditation, I could see these auras, the fog of The Dark Side was black and red, all surrounding and all encompassing - I could hear faint, ghostly whispers telling me to use The Dark Side - while The Light Side, was a distant cloud of blue, silent yet constant, The Light Side didn't call upon you, The Light Side wasn't intrusive like The Dark Side was, The Light Side was distant and difficult, I would need to reach for The Light Side, it was a difficult and distant ideal, something that I would have to work towards and prove myself worthy of, all while resisting the constant pull of The Dark Side, always tempting me to take the easy way and to defy my morals and my beliefs for a quick solution to my current problem - I would always refuse The Dark Side. I knew the damage that The Dark Side would do to my mind and to my body, even if I could use The Force to put up a thin visage of a normal appearance. I reached for The Light Side and I tapped into that power, which luckily, gave me a little more energy, gave me a little bit of relief in my veins, it gave me just enough energy to use The Force for what I needed to do, no more, and no less - this was the way of The Light Side.

I took a deep breath, I'd need to be conservative with this energy, but it was at least something to use for now - with some more rest and meditation, I could fully recover from the wear and tear that I put myself through in these last few lengthy fights, but right now, I didn't have the time, I needed to get into that village and get my key before those Rakatans were one hundred percent ready to fight me. I stood up and lead Lieutenant Warres and Pernox towards the massive gate into The Rakatan village, we were as ready as we could be right now, it was time to get our key.

If I wasn't so limited in terms of what I had left in terms of energy, I would have dramatically blew open the massive double-doors to The Rakatan village, but I couldn't, I had to make a show of force in a different way, a potentially riskier way, but I had no choice at this point. I walked up to those huge double doors and opened them both wide - The Rakatans inside say a powerful angry female Sith with her arms fully extended as she slammed their doors open, however, what I saw in response was strange, perhaps even alarming - a single, tall and unarmed Rakatan stood in the middle of a wide entrance courtyard, I could definitely see that some more Rakatans were hiding in windows or above on balconies, but I had no way of knowing what exactly this was - this likely was an ambush, the unarmed Rakatan was a sacrificial lamb being used as a distraction for me, however, there was another possibility, perhaps this unarmed Rakatan was instead here to negotiate - though in that case, what were the hidden Rakatan soldiers? were they a bargaining chip? were they security? or were they a backup plan, designed to kill me if I refused to negotiate? I didn't know what this was, I was certainly concerned as to how this would go, but my instincts said that this Rakatan wanted to talk, this made me want to go up there and humor win - however, the problem is, if I'm wrong, the consequences are fatal - but ultimately, I decided that I was going to go and talk, I didn't sense any particularly threatening emotions from The Rakatan and I already had some logical ideas as to what the reason for these hidden Rakatan soldiers around the courtyard is.

I felt a gentle breeze blow across my bare upper arms and midriff as I walked into the courtyard, the tension was thick and thus far, everyone's been completely silent, The Rakatan seemed to be sizing me up, meanwhile, I stood there with my arms crossed, adopting the appearance of an arrogant and impatient Sith, meanwhile, Pernox and Lieutenant Warres stood slightly behind me but well in sight - a powerful Sith flanked by a Kaleesh assassin and an Imperial gunslinger, this was a very intimidating sight to be sure - my red eyes looked at The Rakatan from below my hood, starring into his strange, alien eyes mounted on the stalks on the side of his tall, oblong head. I simply stood there, silent but on my guard, just waiting for this fish creature to make the first move, this was his village and it would be his choice as to whether we negotiate or we fight, but no matter what, I was going to leave Lehon not only with the second vault key, but with knowledge that I resolved the feud between The Rakatan village and Outpost Warhead, one way or another.

"Why are you here, Sith?" The Rakatan could evidently speak Galactic Basic, not only that, but he spoke with a surprisingly deep, booming voice - I was expecting a guttural growl like The Selkath spoke with, but given how utterly horrid The Selkath sounded, I was quite grateful that not only did this particular aquatic alien speak a language that I could actually understand and speak fluently, but he spoke with a voice that was very clear and very easy to listen to. I was also quite happy that The Rakata did indeed want to talk rather than immediately fight like his compatriots at Outpost Warhead or even just outside of the village did, therefore, I was going to give him truthful answers and I would avoid the hostile and completely unnecessary threats that almost every other Sith in my position would immediately go to in this kind of situation. Just like I had when I was meditating outside of the village to recover some energy, I was reaching for the ideal of The Light Side rather than taking the short term, easy route that is The Dark Side.

"Two reasons," I began "First of all, my mission on Lehon is to recover a Rakatan artifact that The Sith have determined to be in this village, secondly, I'm here because within minutes of my arrival on this planet, The Imperial Outpost was assaulted by a raiding party of your villagers - many of The Imperial men and women at that base are lying dead or gravely injured."

"How do you think we feel?" The Rakatan replied "This graveyard is our home world, the sole remaining ruin of our once great ancient civilization, now littered by the scars of war between The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire, now our even our old, stone village is the victim of your attacks - first the droids that Inquisitor Quor sent and now you - so yes, we attacked your outpost, we attacked that germ on the face of our homeworld, and now you dare pretend to be innocent when The Imperials attacked first? You better have an explanation for this, Sith."

"With all due respect, there are two problems with your statement," I countered "One: Imperial Outpost Warhead is guarded by infantry, they never had any battle droids to send at you, second of all, Inquisitor Quor has gone rouge, we don't know where he's gone - he could be off the planet or dead for all we know - and our intelligence implied that you knew he was gone."

"We knew nothing of the sort," he shot down my point, apparently Captain Vulla's sources weren't entirely accurate after all "So, if the droids aren't from you Imperials, where are they coming from?"

"Well, I did see a pair of quadrupedal battle droids crossing onto this island from the one covered by The Star Forge ruins." I answered tentatively, I didn't know for sure if those were the droids assaulting The Rakatan village, but I knew that those droids came onto this island and seemed to be on their way to the village, especially given that their heavy fire power was more than equipped enough for taking down an entrenched force in and around a fortress like village like this was, even when accounting for those old artillery installations that The Rakatans had.

"The Star Forge ruins?" The Rakatan asked incredulously "Could someone be using those?"

"Based on the presence of these droids, it seems so," I replied, somewhat grimly.

"The Star Forge is a living tool of The Dark Side, our ancestors created it to fuel of Infinite Empire, a mistake that twisted us to The Dark Side, made us insane, and eventually stripped us of The Force itself. Nearly four centuries ago, Revan came and activated The Star Forge again for her invasion of The Galactic Republic, some fools among our population let her do it, then our planet was showered with wreckage, entire capital ships collapsing upon our world, fiery comets crashing through our atmosphere - hellfire reigned because of the mistakes of our people, and because of the greed and the destructiveness of yours! Then Revan was betrayed by her apprentice, Malak, driven mad and power-hungry by the corrupting influence of The Dark Side, and a supposedly redeemed Revan came to destroy The Star Forge, she was still a fool, The Star Forge is too powerful to kill, its legacy will forever haunt our world, now, someone again thinks that they can harness this power. You people don't understand why The Rakata are nearly extinct, their devices are evil, they will consume you - even you, who comes to our village to take the artifact we guard - do you even know what we're protecting you from?"

"A key to a vault under the sea floor of Manaan, a vault that contains The Codex." I replied meekly, The Rakata was absolutely right, we didn't know what we were dealing with and it would easily come and bite back at Lord Thassite, but I was just her apprentice, in the world of The Sith Empire, that meant that she held all the power and, if I tried to resist and got caught doing it, Lord Thassite would kill me - she was far more experienced with The Force, she was able to do far more with her deadly double-bladed lightsaber than I could possibly muster with my untrained sword skills and my single-bladed lightsaber, and she was a Sith Lord, that meant that she would have no hesitation killing me, while I still clung to my morals, I would try and show my Master mercy, and she would take that chance to kill me if we were ever to end up in such a situation, which I seriously hoped that we wouldn't end up in such a predicament, however, given that I followed The Light Side of The Force while Lord Thassite was a solid follower of The Dark Side, my position on that particular spectrum might already be enough for Lord Thassite to declare me a traitor to The Sith Empire and dispose of me as soon as I was no longer of any use to her - however, for now, as long as the hunt for The Rakatan vault keys continued, Lord Thassite needed me to do the wet-work, that meant that, for now, I was safe...after that, I didn't know.

"Well it appears that you and whoever pulls your puppet strings is well informed of what we're hiding, but evidently, you have failed to consider why we're hiding it - have you considered what kind of damage an omniscient supercomputer like The Codex can do in the wrong hands? Every single betrayal is out in the open, every single secret is revealed, and every single spy is at certain risk - consider what the damage this device could bring when you and The Sith get their hands on it, nobody in The Galaxy will be safe...not even you." again, his words rang true, The Codex was a horrible thing and Lord Thassite would definitely use it for horrible things, in fact, Lord Thassite would almost definitely send me to execute her enemies, all until I was the last obstacle on her list, then, just like The Rakatan leader said, even I wouldn't be safe from The Codex.

"I know," I replied "But I have no choice, like you said, I'm just a puppet, someone greater than either of us is pulling the strings."

"Then I suppose that I have no choice either, if I don't hand over the artifact, you'll just kill me - and even if we defeat you, they'll just send someone else to take the key from our village." The Rakatan leader was a very wise man, he understood exactly where we both stood and he understood the exact context that lead to us being right here, it was quite unfortunate that the circumstances put us on opposite sides, just like it was incredibly unfortunate that, in order to survive, I had to get this evil device and give it to my equally evil Master."

"I'm sorry," I whispered "But you're right,"

"I pity you Sith," he replied "I see that you're just another slave to The Sith Empire, I understand that now that you Sith know about our vault and our keys, it's only inevitable that you will take it from us. The way I see it, there is a solution that can benefit us both."

"Oh?" I listened intently, desperate for a peaceful solution.

"Go to The Star Forge ruins and deactivate it, stop whoever is making these droids - if you stop the attacks on our village, I will tell my men to no longer attack your Imperial Outpost, it will be difficult, but we will find a way to coexist...so long as The Imperials remain peaceful as well." The Rakatan leader proposed "Otherwise, you will need to take the artifact by force, and believe me, me and my men will not show you mercy if you refuse our generous offer, young Sith - please, make the right choice Chiss, I know that you aren't like the rest of your people, and I don't want you to become like the rest of them - I see true good in you, I see that you want a peaceful resolution between Outpost Warhead and our village, so please, recognize that my offer is that peaceful solution that you are looking for, and now, please take it, this is your one and only chance."

I pondered over my options here, The Rakatan leader had a point, The Light Side choice would be to take his offer and stop whoever is making those droids at The Star Forge ruins - when I saw those ruins, I immediately sensed that my mission would be tied to those ruins, and here's the link...it was certainly compelling, I'd have more time to recover some more energy before getting into another fight, however, those two droids were definitely a very difficult fight and I had no idea just how many droids were at The Star Forge ruins or however many could be built while I was there or how quickly the ancient space station factory could spit out those damn droids, nor did I know who or what exactly was responsible for the droids being built. Here at the village, I at least knew what I was up against, but I'd have to fight much deeper into the village and find where the vault key is hidden, meaning that, it was perhaps simpler - though not necessarily easier - to betray these Rakatans and take the second vault key by force - again, The Dark Side option was intrusive and tempting, trying to draw me into this terrible act of killing this poor, wise men and his followers, however, I would take this complicated and potentially harder path of investigating The Star Forge ruins, I'd remain committed to The Light Side of The Force, I'd take The Rakatan leader's deal.

"I'll go to The Star Forge ruins, I'll stop the droid attacks, you have my word." I promised, shacking hands with The Rakatan leader, my small hand covered in my black and blue glove shook his large, scaly bare hand, we had a deal.

"Thank you Sith," he smiled, evidently with some sort of pride "You're destined for great things child, I'm glad that you took this opportunity to solidify your determination to The Light Side of The Force, you truly are a rarity among your kind, a redeemer for the many crimes your people and their agents have done against me, my ancestors, and the people of Lehon."

As Lieutenant Warres, Pernox, and I walked back out of the village and past the corpses of the poor Rakatans that the misunderstandings and circumstances of our situation have caused, I had to wonder, was there more to the wise old Rakatan leader? His authority was obvious, his intelligence and wisdom equally so, but the reason behind that authority, that knowledge, and that wisdom wasn't as clear, he knew way more about The Rakatans, The Jedi, The Sith, The Galactic Republic, The Sith Empire, hell, The Galaxy at large than he was letting on - he's definitely been off of this planet, his knowledge surpasses this backwater planet easily, but I had no clue as to where he could have gone or when or even why, but he's definitely been educated somehow about galactic politics and cultures. I wasn't sure if he had a connection to The Force, the deep fog of darkness from the nearby Star Forge ruins is far too great for me to be able to accurately determine whether or not he is Force-Sensitive, though that would certainly be very unique, because, as he said, The Rakata at large have been stripped of The Force for thousands of years...but has he? Quite frankly, I didn't know, all I knew is that he's wise, not inherently hostile, and he's directed me towards a peaceful solution to my predicament here on Lehon between Outpost Warhead and The Rakatan village, and, for that, I had to respect him, at very least. I did not, however, understand him, and that made me very, very curious because I wanted to know, I wanted to know why he's such a genius about The Force, why his understanding of The Galaxy is so comprehensive, but, unfortunately, right now, I had no idea what exactly he has, let alone where all his knowledge comes from - for all I know, he could be anything from a lowly Rakatan chieftain who happens to enjoy reading historical non-fiction and is hardened from real-life experience leading his village, to a very skilled con-artist who more than successfully bluffed me into wiping out his enemies, to some sort of exiled Jedi Master trying to do a little bit of good on this very distant and very ancient world deep within The Unknown Regions. Very interesting indeed.

In any case, as we walked down the path I looked across the water to The Star Forge ruins - they were a very sleek, black metal scorched by reentry into Lehon's atmosphere - it was designed as a sphere within a triangular frame - though about half of that frame was gone, it must have either fallen into the sun upon the "destruction" of The Star Forge, burned up in the atmosphere, or been destroyed on impact. The top of the metal triangular frame was aimed upwards and in the direction of The Rakatan village, it looked almost like a tall and elaborate crown, meanwhile, the sphere at the bottom was the part that had actually made impact with the ground, therefore the bottom of the sphere was slightly cracked and caved in - supporting my theory that the rest of the triangular frame could've been destroyed on impact, The Star Forge certainly didn't enter Lehon's atmosphere in a pleasant way - especially given that The Star Forge entered Lehon's atmosphere at a very fast speed, fast enough to escape the gravity of the sun that The Star Forge was literally drawing energy from - speaking of, I wasn't entirely sure how The Star Forge was able to escape the sun's gravity, it could be something that has to do with The Star Forge's connection with The Dark Side of The Force, or perhaps it could simply be some sort of fail safe built into the ancient space station itself, the technology of it was definitely centuries beyond that of any other civilization at the time, the technology of The Rakatan Infinite Empire still stands up today, in fact, in many ways, the ancient Rakatans were centuries upon centuries ahead of us, between devices like The Star Forge and The Codex supercomputer which we're currently looking for, unfortunately, the circumstances have forced them to be reduced to these tribal clashing warlords. It was tragic in a way, to know that one day, The Sith Empire, The Chiss Ascendency, and even the mighty Galactic Republic, all of them will one day lie in pitiful ruins with the last few survivors clinging to memories of greatness from centuries, even millennia ago, just like The Rakata now cling to The Infinite Empire - in fact, in some ways, the current Sith Empire clings to their own great past, The Sith Purebloods aren't Pureblood at all, the title is simply given to those with the most visible Sith features to legitimize the claims of this Empire that it's the very same entity formed by Ajunta Pall due to this Empire being formed by the ruins of The Sith after Naga Sadow's disastrous invasion of The Galactic Republic - a successor state, perhaps, but this Sith Empire is not the same entity, far too much has changed politically, culturally, and socially - not to mention the fascination with The Valley of The Dark Lords and all The Tombs - though I respect history and honoring the dead, with The Sith, it's all about power, even if that power's gained by plundering from their ancestors.

We continued all the way down the path and beyond onto the beach covered by gentle, white sand, reaching the edge of the narrow body of water separating the two islands, I sighed as we once again had to wade through the water - I suppose that I could have figured out some way to use The Force to get me across the gap, such as using it to enhance my ability to jump, but, first of all, I didn't have a way of getting my companions across and if they have to deal with such a burden and disadvantage, I felt that it was only right that I follow them along with it, second of all, I was still trying to recover from overexerting myself in that battle outside of The Rakatan village, and third of all, there really was no time benefit to doing such a thing because I'd eat up any time advantage by figuring out how to do such a Force technique and, due to the first issue, waiting for Pernox and Lieutenant Warres to cross through the water, so ultimately, wading through the water would just be inefficient and selfish, therefore, all three of us had to wade through the water, all three of us wet together, and all six of our wet feet made their way through the watery gap in between the islands.

Once again we emptied the water from our boots and had to bear with wet and heavy clothes, however, now, at very least, we were nearly at the end of our mission, we just had to deal with whoever is running these Star Forge ruins - though I had to fear that this would be easier said than done - and then The Rakatan villagers would hand over the second vault key - I trusted The Rakatan leader, I knew that he didn't want to do it but I also knew that he was well aware of his predicament, he knew that Lord Thassite and The Sith would get that key one way or another, and at least with me, he had a way that he and his villagers could benefit from handing over the relics - then we could leave Lehon knowing that we've done everything we can to ensure the survival of Imperial Outpost Warhead and The Rakatan village before Lord Thassite would inevitably send me out to retrieve the next two keys from whatever dangerous planet they were hidden on - one was on a planet with towering glaciers, the other was implied to have been stolen or at least taken off of Kashyyyk, who know where it could be now.

We walked up the beach and came onto another path leading to and eventually into the ruins of The Star Forge itself, I grabbed my lightsaber with my left hand but didn't ignite it - I wanted to be ready, but not necessarily threatening, perhaps I could even have this particular situation resolved peacefully just like I had evidently done with the feud between The Rakatan village and Outpost Warhead. With that in mind, I cautiously lead my companions through the path leading into The Star Forge itself, especially since along both side of the path were deactivated models of the very same kind of quadrupedal battle droids that we had fought on the beach - confirming my suspicions, this was definitely the place that was responsible for aggravating The Rakatans, this is the place that caused the raid on Outpost Warhead, this is the place that is directly or indirectly responsible for every single obstacle I've faced on the planet of Lehon.

This turned out to be even more true when, after following the path of destroyed walls into a control room - a large room surrounded by some peculiar destroyed cages and tubes, at one point, some people were kept here and were tortured, I had to suspect that this had something to do with The Rakatan Infinite Empire, Darth Revan, Darth Malak, or likely, all of the above- however, what was much more relevant was the robed figure standing at a terminal, he was dressed in red robes and wore a lightsaber on his hip, that, combined with the sickly pale tone of his bald and scarred head could only mean one thing - he was a Sith, not only that, but the way that all the puzzle pieces were clicking together, I was almost one-hundred percent certain about the identity of this Sith who was responsible for all of this trouble with The Star Forge ruins.

"Inquisitor Quor," I saw him jump with surprise at my arrival, evidently my presence was also masked by the thick and the intrusive fog of The Dark Side constantly resonating off of The Star Forge ruins. He quickly regained his composure and faced me, I could immediately tell that he was completely driven insane by The Dark Side, his skin was so deeply corrupted that every inch of it was pale, dry, cracked, wrinkled, and hideously disfigured, similarly, his eyes were bloodshot and sickly yellow with solid red pupils, he was completely gone, I already knew that there was no way to solve this peacefully.

"A Sith, finally!" he began yelling at the top of his lungs "Finally come to listen to my demands?"

"No," I completely rejected his little power trip, he was a nobody lunatic on a backwater planet thinking that he could make some sort of legitimate challenge to The Sith Empire, he was far too corrupted and far too insane to reason with, this was going to end in a fight one way or another "I'm here to stop you from using these ruins-"

"NEVER!" he interrupted before I had the chance to finish, launching red Force Lightning at me, I immediately retaliated and launched my purple Lightning in return, our powers were locked in the middle, he was more experienced, having had served The Sith long enough to earn the title of Inquisitor, even if it's largely meaningless in his case given his lack of authority and the nature of his assignment, but I had more power, even if I was still tired and still in pain from all those earlier battles in rapid succession. Fortunately for me, my companions were smart, they saw that the two of us were locked in a battle of Force Lightning, meaning that Inquisitor Quor was too preoccupied to deal with them, so, The Sith Inquisitor meant a brutal end when Pernox cut deeply across his back and brutally knocked him to the ground, where Shallev filled him with blaster bolts - this could have been a difficult battle given my current depleted condition, however, Inquisitor Quor had been too crazed and too arrogant, allowing my companions to outmaneuver him and then execute him.

I used my lightsaber to cut across the control panel, destroying it - hopefully this would prevent anyone else from using these ruins ever again. Inquisitor Quor and his pitiful rebellion was over, I fulfilled my promise to The Rakatans - I'd also talk to Captain Vulla before I left to make sure The Imperials don't attack The Rakatans in retaliation - they'd had over the second vault key and my mission on Lehon would be over.

* * *

I love you all, peace out!


	15. Seas of Ice on a Secritive World

So the arc structure has been pretty strict for...wow, nine weeks straight, so, I figured it was time to break it up a little bit, this one is a bit of a breather episode and establishes the story's secondary plot, I'm pretty sure this chapter's going to be on the long side so if you don't like that, I'd like to apologize ahead of time and ask that you bear with me because there's a lot of things I want to do with this chapter and I think this one will help bring the story into a more dynamic and more interesting direction. So, without further adieu, here's chapter fifteen of The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire, please read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XV.

Seas of Ice on a Quiet and Secretive World.

* * *

The Rakatans had upheld their end of the bargain and Captain Vulla promised not to counterattack, the mission on Lehon was successful and I added the second key to the safe in the cargo hold of _The Black Shadow_. I wasn't sure if Lord Thassite had already decoded where the final two - or at least the next key - were, but I'm sure that I'll find out when I report my success to her. I walked out into the central holoprojector room where Lieutenant Warres and Pernox were waiting for me, standing just outside of the communication device's range. I took a deep breath and prepared myself, it was time to be the obedient and proper Sith apprentice, it was time to appear strong enough to be Lord Thassite's apprentice, but not strong enough to appear as a legitimate threat to my Master, however, on the other hand, I couldn't appear so weak as to seem easily disposable for when Lord Thassite was done with me - this was the delicate balance of attempting to survive in the upper echelons of Sith society, where Masters and apprentices alike scheme against each other, plotting the deaths of the other, placing traps on each other, playing rivals against each other, all while retarding the growth of The Sith Empire as a whole. In many ways, surviving in The Sith Empire was harder than surviving The Sith Trials in The Valley of The Dark Lords on Korriban, escaping a maze only to find myself within a labyrinth.

"Lord Thassite," I bowed my head as her hologram shimmered into view, my red-skinned Twi'Lek Master looked down at me, ready for my report "I've retrieved the second vault key off of Lehon."

"Good," she smirked "My understanding is that Inquisitor Quor has been removed from his post, care to explain?"

"Inquisitor Quor proved to be an obstacle in my path to getting the key." I replied to her euphemism in a simple and straightforward matter, Lord Thassite didn't need to know about my deal with The Rakatan leader, so I spoke in such a way that Lord Thassite would hopefully believe that Inquisitor Quor and I simply had one of those standard Sith feuds, I had to keep up appearances after all.

"Is that so?" Lord Thassite asked and I simply nodded "Very well then apprentice, I'm doing what I can to track down the last two keys, The Rakatan secrets can't escape the prying eyes of The Sith Empire for long. I'll contact you in a few days or so once I know more."

"What shall I do in the mean time?" I asked in response.

"You have a ship and you serve The Sith Empire, I'm giving you free reign apprentice, all I ask is that you are ready when I contact you, until then help The Sith Empire, build up your power base, crush your enemies!" Lord Thassite answered.

"Very well Master," I bowed my head again as her hologram disappeared. Lord Thassite was giving me free reign...I had to imagine that this was some sort of test, my Master wanted to see what I'd do without a particularly tight leash, she was likely already having suspicions that I'd betray her - I had no intention to do so, I was only a Sith apprentice because of the circumstances forcing me to either pass my trials on Korriban or die trying - all she needed was proof, granted, I could hardly blame Lord Thassite, she's spent a lot more time in the vile and cutthroat world of The Sith Empire than I have, and given that she's a Twi'Lek, Thassite was probably raised as a slave of The Sith, therefore, betrayal, scheming, and backstabbing is all she knows, it's the unfortunate reality of life in The Sith Empire and, while I was lucky enough to have been raised outside of The Sith Empire, I can't forget that almost everyone I'll encounter during my time as a Sith, whether they be Sith or Imperial, haven't had that same privilege.

The very first thing I'd do, however, is rest and recover - the mission on Lehon was very taxing physically, mentally, and with The Force, to say I needed to lay down for a few hours is an understatement. I walked into The Captain's Quarters, closing the door behind me, and stripped off my black and blue robes and put them in my laundry footlocker, I put my lightsaber and my holoprojector on my end table and I laid down while covering myself, I was comfortable, relaxed, and finally had an opportunity to rest after I had completely exhausted myself in all of those battles with The Rakatans, the quadrupedal battle droids, and finally with Inquisitor Quor - becoming a Sith apprentice hardly meant that I couldn't enjoy the mundane pleasures of life, I felt comfortable and secure here in my little bedroom on _The Black Shadow_ with the constant nearby presence and protection of my companions - right now, it was just Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and I, but I imagined that one day I'll be able to build up a circle of trusted allies, contacts, and true friends around me - and on that note, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next day I woke up and got dressed in a clean set of robes - the black and purple robes from the very beginning of my career as a Sith, the fabric felt so familiar and I was comfortable to once again be wearing a full and proper set of robes - the exposed robes were very helpful with dealing with heat and humidity on Tatooine and Lehon respectively, and they were Sith fashion, however, they weren't my particular preference. Now that I was dressed again and ready for another day, I walked back out into the central room of _The Black Shadow_ so that I could check in case Lord Thassite had managed to track down the final two keys earlier than she and I were expecting, I kneeled in front of the holoprojector and I checked for any messages - unfortunately, there was nothing from Lord Thassite - however, interestingly enough, there was a message from Operator Vizen'ror, The Chiss official who was looking for me on Manaan, The Chiss official who gave me The Ascendency's sea floor maps in exchange for eventually giving her a favor - I had to imagine that she was contacting me because Operator Vizen'ror intended to cash in on the favor I owed her. I took a deep breathe and responded to the message with a holocall, standing up and quickly getting into a neutral stance and putting up a Sabaac Face - I had the impression that Vizen'ror was very powerful and I didn't want to appear like a threat to her, nor did I want to seem like I could be threatened by her - it seems that talking to Operator Vizen'ror wasn't all that different than talking to Lord Thassite, and, given that circumstances forced me into giving her the leverage of a favor, right now, it seems that I had two Masters, and I wasn't quite sure which one was more dangerous.

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," Operator Vizen'ror greeted - still speaking in a conspicuous Imperial accent - as she and her personal enforcer, Ty'rahl'ee, shimmered into view, the two Chiss women stood together, Ty'rahl'ee standing silently behind her superior's left shoulder, obedient...in a way, the relationship between Vizen'ror and Ty'rahl'ee reminded me of myself and Pernox - the dangerous woman and her equally dangerous companion, silent, formidable, and constantly loyal "It's nice to see you, old friend, tell me, how have you been as of late?"

"I've been well, serving my Master on her errands all around The Galaxy, the usual among Sith, and you?" I knew there was going to be much more to this conversation than merely small talk, but I'd humor Vizen'ror, after all, we were 'old friends' apparently. I was careful not to let on too much to Vizen'ror, she clearly had the resources to track down the vault keys herself and she had allies at The Chiss Embassy on Manaan itself - after all, Vizen'ror had so many soldiers, contacts, and resources that she was ordering a massive fourteen tons of Kolto from The Selkath as I was walking into The Embassy and meeting her the first time - not to mention that Lord Thassite and I had already established that this was on a need to know basis - I did reveal the mission to that wise old Rakatan chieftain on Lehon, however, one: I trusted that he wouldn't reveal the mission to anyone else, two: I had already taken the second vault key out of his possession, and three: he's been on Lehon for a long time, as wise and as educated as he is, he clearly didn't know where the rest of the keys were, so not only was I clear from further repercussions from that event, I trusted that the secret itself was safe with him - Operator Vizen'ror was far too dangerous to let know the details of our operation, in fact, since we've taken the sea floor maps, I'm sure Vizen'ror has taken a deep interest in finding out what we were looking for in her chunk of Manaan's surface, however, I was going to make sure that Vizen'ror wouldn't find it out from me.

"Well I wish I could say I was doing well," Vizen'ror sighed, I could tell already that this was a transition into her tasking me with a mission "However, relations with one of my fellow Chiss dignitaries have broken down, Colonel Ko'venz'tai tried to make a power play against me on Copero, an attempt on my life no less, Ty'rahl'ee and I retaliated and pushed him and his inner circle off world. Now, in a normal situation, I would send Ty'rahl'ee out and have the mess cleaned up myself, however, with this power play, The Copero Clans are uneasy, ambitious - it will not be easy to ensure security on the home front in light of that - therefore, I need Ty'rahl'ee here to ensure the safety of myself and my operations, however, I still need Colonel Ko'venz'tai dealt with. That, Gl'ickeneose, is why I'm calling you, we had a deal on Manaan after all, I'm sure you and your Master have used our sea floor maps to full use."

"I'm aware Operator," I responded "So you're asking me to deal with Ko'venz'tai?"

"I'm asking you to kill him and all his forces, I want a show of force." Vizen'ror replied coldly, ensuring that I had no way of resolving this peacefully, her tone of voice implying there would be consequences if I refused to return her favor - now, Operator Vizen'ror was clearly implicitly threatening me, there's two types of people who would even think of threatening The Sith, someone who is very stupid, or someone who knows they're more dangerous than a Sith, and it was pretty clear to me that Vizen'ror wasn't stupid - therefore, given that I very much valued my own survival, it seems that I had no choice but to do what Vizen'ror was asking, I had to give up my pride this time and do what she wanted, no matter how much I disagreed with it.

"Very well then," I reluctantly accepted "Where is Colonel Ko'venz'tai?"

"I'm glad to see you've seen things our way," Vizen'ror smirked "We've tracked Ko'venz'tai to an old Chiss spy bunker on Hoth, a large and well defended stronghold including two hangers, a comprehensive and technological command center, and an equally comprehensive armory, they'll know you're coming, they'll have a variety of escape routes, and they'll be well armed Gl'ickeneose, I apologize that this is a complicated task but I'm sure that you of all people will be more than capable of resolving this problem _permanently_. I will make sure that you're well compensated for this effort, you have my word. Goodbye my friend and good luck, I'm looking forward to hearing about your success."

"Very well," I bowed my head as Vizen'ror and Ty'rahl'ee disappeared, Lord Thassite had promised my free reign, however, my obligations remained, I now had to do this particular task for my alleged Chiss ally, a task just as brutal and just as inescapable as any that Lord Thassite would assign me to, once again, the parallels between both of my Masters were becoming clearer and clearer.

"We're going to Hoth?" I heard from the back of the room, I turned my head to see Shallev and Pernox who had decided to discreetly listen in on our correspondence.

"Yes, it would seem so," I replied.

"Why?" he asked "You're a Sith, the most dangerous kind of person in the bloody Galaxy, you're taking orders from some freaking Chiss?"

"The most dangerous kind of person, Shallev, is the kind of person who knows they can threaten a Sith." I countered. I didn't necessarily want to see myself as dangerous, I knew that I was a huge threat to others, I had a deadly purple beam of energy constantly at my disposal and, much deadlier than that, I had a very strong connection to The Force, I had a very wide variety of offensive abilities: Force Pushes, Force Choking, and of course my numerous Lightning attacks: Force Lightning, Force Storms, Lightning Strikes, Chain Lightning...and that's just what I knew how to do now, with more training and more experience I had to imagine that I would be able to do some very exotic and very deadly Force techniques, and, with that extra practice, with that battle hardened experience, I'd be able to do much more of those kinds of attacks before draining myself like I have a few times already - once on Korriban after all those heavy battles in The Tomb of Tulak Horde, and, more recently, my very inopportune experience after the many battles against Rakatans and droids on Lehon - but, despite all that, I didn't want to abuse my power, I didn't want to be cruel or harmful to innocent people. I think my experiences on Lehon have codified my determination for remaining firmly on The Light Side of The Force, however, as it turns out, I had to do this task for Vizen'ror, I had to murder Colonel Ko'venz'tai and all of his forces, however, given that I didn't have a choice, I had to hope that the consequences of such an action wouldn't be too severe, but I had absolutely no way of knowing beforehand, after all, The Force works in mysterious ways.

"Touché," he backed down, realizing that I had a point, I didn't know exactly how powerful Operator Vizen'ror was - though she was certainly confident enough to believe she's more than powerful enough to intimidate and use men - but I didn't want to find out the hard way, for now, I was simply paying back a favor that I owed, after all, I was a woman of my word, if this relationship were to continue after this, then I'll start looking into how powerful Vizen'ror truly is, whether or not she's truly useful as an ally, and how to break free of her grasp when necessary. For now, however, I was content with simply fulfilling my obligation, after all, Vizen'ror's maps proved to be exactly what Lord Thassite and I needed, so it was only right that I at very least fulfill my end of the bargain. I did have to wonder though, if I had decided to take one of the other options that Lord Thassite presented to me, if I had decided to retrieve the sea floor maps from The Exchange or from The Hutt Cartel, would I still be here with a mission from Operator Vizen'ror? I had to imagine that I would be in the same situation after all, I mean she and her people on Manaan were already looking for me, already watching my every move, Vizen'ror would find a way to get me into her service anyway, though that way I'd be free from an obligation - though it's not like The Operator was giving me much choice to begin with. In any case, I had my mission, I didn't have a choice, and Lord Thassite did say that finding the last two keys would likely take her a few days, so I had more than enough time to execute this mission, so reluctantly, I walked into _The Black Shadow's_ cockpit and set the navigational computer for Hoth, a distant and frigid world.

* * *

We landed _The Black Shadow_ on The Imperial Orbital station above Hoth, a relatively small and mundane station orbiting above the shining white orb of the world - the ice covered was reflecting ridiculous amounts of light - and we walked off of the ship into the space station possible - I had downloaded the exact coordinates of Colonel Ko'venz'tai's stronghold during the journey here - Operator Vizen'ror had done the dirty work tracking him down to this remote world, all I had to do was the wet work, clearing out the stronghold itself...I had to do the unpleasant part. Pernox and Lieutenant Warres accompanied me, as usual, Vizen'ror's warning implied that I would need all the help that I could get - the stronghold's high tech command center would no doubt include radar that's more than capable of detecting us as we approached, the armory would no doubt be filled with weapons that are more than capable of defeating us, and if we weren't careful, the hangers would no doubt be filled with ships that are more than capable of escaping us - all in all this was shaping up to be a rather difficult mission, however, I was sure that the three of us, our powerful and battle proven trio, would be able to survive and succeed in this particular mission.

I lowered the cargo hold and made arrangements for our three speeders to be taken down to the surface while we took the shuttle, we needed to be ready and we needed to be fast - luckily, even on this space station over such a remote world, the local Imperials were used to dealing with The Sith arriving without warning and giving seemingly arbitrary and perhaps even difficult demands, so my comparatively simple task of transporting a trio of speeders down to the surface, most likely on a shuttle that's heading down there anyway, was almost a sigh of relief compared to what The Imperials might have been dreading from us. After having made our arrangements, we left the hanger that our ship was housed in and continued into the main area of the station proper, a large central plaza that all of the hangers were attached to, leading directly to the shuttle departures to the surface, along the way however, there was a checkpoint. This was a medical checkpoint, manned by a bipedal medical droid and a young Imperial male, luckily for us, there weren't any other visitors ahead of us, so The Imperial and the droid processed us quickly, giving us injections for the cold weather - however, they warned that we should still avoid being exposed to the elements any longer than necessary, fortunately for me, due to my background on V'aran'abb, I was pretty used to the cold, though, the injection would matter significantly more, Hoth was literally a ball of ice, quite a bit colder than even V'aran'abb - I was also grateful for wearing my black and purple robes, they were thin and light, but they were also designed to be as versatile as possible, the fabric contracts and insulates in the cold and loosens and lightens in the heat, it was a small difference, but every little bit counted in terms of remaining as warm as possible on Hoth - fortunately for us, the shuttle would drop us off at an Imperial outpost not too far from the coordinates that Operator Vizen'ror gave us, our speeders proved to be very quick on Tatooine and I'm sure they'd remain that way here, so, once all three of us had received our injections, we passed the checkpoint and boarded our shuttle, waiting as our speeders were loaded into its cargo compartment.

I sat down on the metal bench of the shuttle, Pernox sitting next to me and Lieutenant Warres sitting across from me - the shuttle could clearly hold more people, but Hoth has become less and less significant as of late, the vast starship graveyards were looted of anything and everything of worth years ago leaving just metal carcasses of ships being ravaged by bone-chilling winds - and it proved to only be us as the shuttle took off and left the hanger and the orbital station all together, heading down for the surface of Hoth. I could feel the cold winds already as the ship went through the atmosphere, I felt the metal of the shuttle wall behind me getting downright frigid - normally, the metal would heat up even with a controlled reentry, but not here on Hoth, the world was simply far too cold - the planet was remote, barren, and generally inhospitable, so I guess it makes sense that Colonel Ko'venz'tai was hiding out here, far away from Chiss Space. Speaking of The Chiss, as I headed down towards the surface, a thought occurred to me, given that our three speeders were all originally Chiss Ascendency bikes, perhaps as we approached the stronghold, our speeders would register as Ascendency craft and we could slip in as they assumed we were friendly, however, I doubted it, especially given that the whole reason I was on this mission is that there's infighting in The Chiss Ascendency, the implication being that Operator Vizen'ror, in addition to reportedly specializing with relations with The Sith Empire, also held some amount of power over the feuding Copero Clans - factions with The Chiss Ascendency loyal to their individual warlord first and The Ascendency second - and when Colonel Ko'venz'tai attempted his little power play against Vizen'ror, he upset this delicate balance on Copero and beyond, hence I was the one out here going after Colonel Ko'venz'tai himself while Vizen'ror and Ty'rahl'ee remained on Copero trying to keep the peace and prevent any of those Chiss warlords from rising up against Vizen'ror. The Chiss Ascendency was a very decentralized nation, unlike The Galactic Republic with a single Chancellor at the helm or The Sith Empire which was in theory ruled by a single Emperor - though that position was currently vacant and no Emperor really ever held as much power or prestige as Lord Vitiate, though even he was very hands-off, though that was later revealed to be due to his treachery rather than as his style of ruling, in any case, right now, as usual as of late, The Dark Council held the real power, though getting ambitious and treacherous Sith Lords to actually comply to their decrees and orders was a very different matter entirely, much like The Chiss Ascendency after all.

The shuttle's pitiful little air vents were blasting out heat but it proved to be pretty much useless as we finally touched down on Hoth itself, landing on a circle landing pad just outside of an Imperial bunker built into a glacial hill, this was the moment of truth, the shuttle door opened and we were now directly exposed to Hoth's sub-zero air, we walked out and onto the icy and snowy ground itself as we waited for The Imperials on the ground to take our speeders out of the shuttle and into our hands - as always, I did have my mobile holoprojector with me just in case Lord Thassite contacted me while I was out here, I'm sure that she would be suspicious as to what I'm doing on Hoth, though I had the excuse of free reign on my side, besides, given that the primitive image pointing to where the third key was hidden was a glacier, the third key might be here to begin with - Lord Thassite initially suspected as much but due to the lack of conclusive data concerning links between The Rakata and Hoth, she wanted to do more research and cross check glaciers along with known Rakata worlds in her attempts to find leads, though who really knows, The Rakatan Infinite Empire was so long ago and so widespread that they may have had presence on far more worlds than we're expecting, after all, these vault keys could be the evidence that links The Rakatans to certain worlds to begin with, though so far, Manaan and Tatooine both had well established links to The Rakatans due to the presence of The Star Maps on these worlds, and of course Lehon is The Rakatan homeworld. Kashyyyk is another world that had a Star Map on it, but with that scratch over the crude engraving of a towering tree, we weren't sure if that was symbolic over the key being stolen, moved, or maybe even destroyed, in fact, for all we know, the scratch is moving more than some damage - though nothing else in the area was damaged in quite that same way, regardless, I was glad that Lord Thassite was doing all the research and actually locating the keys, I mean, I had to do the hard work of actually retrieving them, and that often put me in very, very uncomfortable predicaments, but still, doing that research must be so exhausting and so potentially inconclusive, though that didn't really matter to me right now either way, because our speeders were ready and I had a mission from Operator Vizen'ror, my _other_ Master, to deal with.

I straddled my blue and white speeder bike and entered the coordinates that Vizen'ror left me into the little navigational computer on the speeder bike - at this point I was very much happy about wearing gloves here, I couldn't imagine doing this with bare fingers, I already felt that my hands were absolutely freezing even with these thick purple fabric gloves - and finally, once the destination was entered, the three of us sped across a glacier heading towards our coordinates - unfortunately, we were heading into the wind, now, our speeders were quick enough that this wasn't slowing us down all that much, however, the fact that we were going this fast directly into the wind, that meant that we were getting even more of that bone-chilling cold wind blowing against us - what didn't help is that the flat glacier soon turned into a hillier area as we got closer to our destination, now we had faster, rougher alpine winds to deal with, needless to say, this journey was very, very unpleasant, the only consolation being that at very least it wasn't snowing right now - through at this point it might as well have been, because the quick winds were blowing some of the snow off of the mountains into our path - again, it wasn't pleasant, but we survived, as we always have, and with every hill, gust of wind, and episode of blowing snow, we got closer and closer to Colonel Ko'venz'tai's stronghold: each and every obstacle that we encountered, the three of us beat as we got closer and closer to our destination.

We were cold, we were shivering, we were miserable, but we finally saw our destination: the stronghold was built into a hill just like The Imperial outpost that our shuttle landed on - I imagined that this was pretty much standard practice on Hoth, anywhere that could get you closer to a source of geothermal heat was considered a great place to build a base, hence, it was very rare to see a building simply built up on top of the surface here on Hoth, a hollowed out mountain or expanded cave system was much easier and usually much better to deal with on this planet. There was no sign of detection, we couldn't here any klaxons, we couldn't see any flashing alarms, quite the opposite really, in fact, directly in front of us was a wide open empty hanger - we didn't see any ships leave on our way here so whatever this was, it wasn't a ship fleeing in response to our arrival - though I did imagine that the wide open hanger door was an inviting ambush, massive heavy blast doors were pretty much ubiquitous in these kinds of hangers, there's no doubt that they had the ability to shut the hanger tight, and the fact that they didn't is only raising my suspicion. I could have some wishful thinking and assume that their radar did indeed register our speeders as Ascendency craft and they decided to at least hear us out, but given that I was being forced to kill them all, I was much more comfortable with thinking of this hanger situation as a hostile ambush rather than an unsuspecting prey inadvertently allowing its greatest predators into its hovel.

In any case, there was only one way to find out, the three of us headed into the hanger - regardless of what happened, we had absolutely no choice but to kill them all, Vizen'ror spoke in no uncertain terms - at very least I had one less complication to worry about since at least one of the hangers was empty, though I'd immediately have to check and clear out the other one - I couldn't afford to let anyone expect, so I'd prevent anyone in the hanger itself from escaping and then I'd put myself in between those in the command center and their primary escape routes - though I had to imagine that there would be a lot more hidden exits and entrances from such a high end and specialized stronghold, though if the three of us were fast enough, we could finish off the stranglers before any of them could escape, particularly Colonel Ko'venz'tai, our primary target - I had to imagine that while he was alive, none of his men would attempt to escape, as long as he's alive, he's the only one I need to worry about escaping, because I'm sure that the consequences of betraying such a cutthroat warlord and leaving him for dead were far more brutal, long term, and cruel than anything I was willing to do...then again, in a conventional scenario, I wouldn't be willing to go to such a remote world and fight in a battle between Chiss warlords - now, yes, I was a Chiss, but I was born and raised on the distant frontier of Chiss Space, very near The Imperial border, the power of these Copero Clans on V'aran'abb was limited, the real power was held by their less than loyal local viceroys, because of that, I had little to no connection to this feud between Vizen'ror and Ko'venz'tai, other than the fact that I was being forced to fight in it by my 'old friend' The Operator.

My fears of an ambush turned out to be correct because as soon as we entered the hanger, the heavy blast doors began closing and Colonel Ko'venz'tai's Chiss troopers opened fire - now we really didn't have a choice, we were trapped inside of this stronghold with a hostile force - which in this hanger, was around twenty heavily armed soldiers - we quickly parked our speeders behind some crates that could act as cover and rushed behind those crates, quickly getting our heads together and quickly getting ready to fight back. I decided that I would start our with trying to even the odds, I summoned energy together and I launched a blast of Chain Lightning into the group of Chiss soldiers, though I quickly had to duck back down to avoid the huge amounts of blaster fire that these twenty or so Chiss militiamen were able to dish out - still, when I got back into cover, I heard quite a few satisfying thuds and a significantly less blaster fire. I popped back up again and launched a Lightning Strike, this distracted the Chiss soldiers and allowed for Lieutenant Warres to pop out of cover and pick a few of them off while they were least expecting it, meanwhile, Pernox was under the cover of her stealth generator just waiting to strike and rip apart The Chiss troopers, we fully had the upper hand now. I used a Force Push to blow one of those enemy soldiers into a metal divider wall behind me - the hangers walls were mainly tightly packed snow and ice with various wires, pipes, and tubes attached to them, however, at the end of the hanger, attaching to the main base was an elevated area, with an entrance ramp on either side of the hanger and a metal wall below the hanger overlook, beyond that, the hanger connected to a central hallway which likely also connected to the other hanger and to the base proper - however, I could worry about the stronghold's layout later, right now, I still had a few of these soldiers to deal with. I stood up again and launched Force Lightning with both hands, hitting two different Chiss soldiers - I was getting better with The Force, slowly but surely, now I was being able to direct Force Lightning in different directions, I could have more than just one point of focus now - meanwhile Pernox came out of her cover of stealth and quickly cut down four Chiss soldiers in rapid succession with her deadly double-bladed vibrosword, all the while, Lieutenant Warres used his twin blaster pistols to pick off the stragglers. Our first hurdle in Colonel Ko'venz'tai's stronghold was dealt with, now we just had the other hanger and the command center to deal with.

"Gl'ickeneose," I turned to face Pernox shortly after we walked up the ramps and nearly reached the central hallway "There's an auxiliary hall to the right, it goes down and then left, this likely also leads to the hanger, I'll head through it so that we can initiate a pincer attack against those Chiss troopers."

"Good idea Pernox," I nodded and watched as she walked down the narrow snow-packed hallway to the hanger, meanwhile, Lieutenant Warres and I walked into the central hallway, to the left was a large metal door into the command center - we'd deal with opening that and entering that part of the stronghold later, right now, we needed to make sure that the main escape routes were dealt with - fleeing by a starship was a much greater threat than somebody running out into the cold wasteland outside of this bunker - so therefore, we turned right just like Pernox did in the auxiliary hall and we continued onwards - just like in the hanger we just cleared, the ground here was metal tiles placed over packed snow with more of the wires, pipes, and tubes along the walls - the wires must have been for electricity, the pipes could be water or maybe even fuel, after all, this base had two hangers and I had to imagine that Colonel Ko'venz'tai would want to service his ships, refueling and basic repairs at very least, as for the tubes, they were heating - all in all, this section of the base was designed pretty pragmatically, though the metal door to the command center implies that the area beyond it is a more proper base with actual walls rather than this packed snow - though, now Lieutenant Warres and I were heading for the next hanger, walking down a ramp - based on this and the same effect in the auxiliary hallway, this second hanger was lower than the rest of the base, likely due to the natural topography of the area, the stronghold was built into a mountain and perhaps behind it, over by this second hanger, the mountains gave way to a low valley, though in any case, right now, I was much more focused on what's inside of this base rather than the area around it, in particular, I was focused on our next objective in the second hanger.

The ground evened out after the ramp and it wasn't long before we turned left and reached the other hanger - not only was this hanger lower than the other one, it was also facing the opposite direction, and it was smaller, though, the hanger was still very large, more than big enough to hold a ship the size of _The Black Shadow_ , which was by no means a small vessel - however, just like the larger hanger, this one was empty, Due to the hanger's smaller size, there were less guards here, somewhere between ten and fifteen Chiss soldiers opened fire on us, Lieutenant Warres and I ran back out and took cover on either side of the entrance to the hanger, fortunately for us however, the auxiliary hallway was longer and curved back out around and out onto the right side of the hanger, well behind the soldiers who were filling the entranceway between Shallev and I with suppressive blaster fire, preventing us from making any moves, however, because of the way the auxiliary hallway was set up, Pernox was able to come out behind the Chiss soldiers and pick them off and distract them, they weren't covering us off anymore, now it was time for Shallev and I to help out our companion. I popped out of cover and launched purple Force Lightning with both my hands at The Chiss whilst Lieutenant Warres filled their compatriots with blaster bolts and Pernox was able to cut them apart, it didn't take us very long to clear out this second hanger - it was smaller, it was completely flat, no elevated section like the larger hanger, just a large hanger that's only small when compared to the other one, and like the other one, it was sealed to prevent us - or them - from escaping. Well now, both of the main escape routes were dealt with, both hangers were completely cleared out, all that was left to do is to open the door to the command center and wipe out Colonel Ko'venz'tai and the last of his forces, thus we would be fulfilling our obligation to Operator Vizen'ror, she gave me The Chiss sea floor maps, I put an end to one of her political rivals, a favor for a favor, after this, I should be free from her grasp, however, we shall see how that actually turns out when we're done with this little favor for my second Master.

We were done with the hangers, we were done with the escape routes, it was time to deal with our target and finish our mission. Lieutenant Warres, Pernox, and I walked out of second hanger and walked back up the long ramp into the central corridor, the large door into the command center stood directly in front of us, I could've used a Force Push to simply blow it open, however, the door seemed to be a sliding door rather than one that opened conventionally, besides, I would rather have a chance at an element of surprise than the unexpected and immediate shock of seeing the door come down - the might stun the enemy, but when they come to they'll be immediately hostile, this was, they may assume that their allies are opening the door to report their success and we may get the drop on them - though I doubted it, in any case, I had already made my decision and now it was time to execute it. I reached out with The Force and I felt the locking mechanism of the door itself, I carefully unlocked the door and heard a satisfying click - Pernox, Shallev, and I hid on the sides of the wall quickly as the door slid and opened. The door opened up to reveal a much more built up area of the compound, a central holoprojector in the middle of a two story section of the base, there were four paths from here - one lead to this central corridor that the three of us were in, opposite of that was a set of stairs leading up to the next story, to the left was the command center proper, a large room filled with all kinds of monitors and computer equipment, on the right was a room of the exact same size, it was the armory, the second floor was likely living quarters - however, the most pressing matter was the two people standing in the holoprojector room, one, standing in front of the holoprojector, between us and the other person, was a massive Chiss trooper armed with an equally massive assault cannon, the other person was our target, Colonel Ko'venz'tai armed with a blaster pistol standing behind the holoprojector, and besides them, there were no other troops left, this truly was the last obstacle to overcome before our mission was complete.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, that single assault cannon was more than capable enough of providing just as much suppressive fire as those fifteen troops in the last hanger - given that they weren't buying our friendly routine at all, perhaps blowing down the door would've been better in hindsight, though I wasn't sure that even a heavy metal door could hold down that hulking brute for long - though luckily, at very least his assault cannon was using conventional ammunition unlike the fully automatic explosive fire like the quadrupedal battle droids on Lehon were using, though, that's not to say that this wasn't just as deadly as anything that those droids could dish out, because his assault cannon was shooting incredibly quickly. None of us could afford to pop out of cover with that sheer volume of blaster fire coming our way, but we needed to defeat this hulking brute as soon as possible, so I took a bit of calculated risk - I held my left hand just free of the wall, just barely out of cover, and I used The Force to feel for where I thought the assault cannon wielding Chiss trooper was and I electrocuted him with Force Lightning, now, he didn't die or even fall down, but he was stunned, right now we were just dealing with blaster pistol fire from Colonel Ko'venz'tai himself, but that wasn't nearly enough to hold us back. Lieutenant Warres filled him with blaster bolts while I decided to take care of his - I used The Force to pull the assault cannon out of his hands and I slammed it back into his head, he was knocked down and unconscious. I Force Pushed Ko'venz'tai himself into a pillar holding up the second floor above - there were four pillars arranged near the corners of the holoprojector, all adorned with long blue and white Chiss Ascendency banners - I gradually turned my Force Push into a blast of Force Lightning, I grimaced as Ko'venz'tai screamed, upping the intensity briefly to overload his nervous system and end The Colonel's life as quickly as I could. Colonel Ko'venz'tai and his bodyguard were dead, but our mission was to eliminate him and any of the witnesses, so we spread out to check all the remaining areas - Lieutenant Warres checked the command center, Pernox checked the armory, and I went up the stairs to check the living quarters. The area upstairs was two rooms, one was a lavish master bedroom - Colonel Ko'venz'tai's personal quarters - and the other was a crew quarters filled with various small beds, both of these rooms were completely clear, I walked back down to the central holoprojector room and both Lieutenant Warres and Pernox reported the same thing, we've already dealt all The Chiss forces here. I plugged my mobile holoprojector into the much larger central home here and I contacted Operator Vizen'ror to report my success - this holoprojector was right here whilst _The Black Shadow_ was all the way on the orbital station, I had a feeling that there was going to be something more to this situation than just having had cleared this base and I wasn't going to go all the way to that distant Imperial outpost and take a shuttle all the way up to the orbital station just to contact Operator Vizen'ror on my ship and find out that something happened to go wrong and my 'old friend' wanted me to do more than she was letting on, so, I called her here and now, watching as she and Ty'rahl'ee shimmered into view.

"Operator Vizen'ror," I greeted "I'm contacting you from Colonel Ko'venz'tai's bunker, the hangers were empty and all of the soldiers that The Colonel was held up with are dead, my companions and I are the only ones left in this stronghold."

"Well done Gl'ickeneose," she replied "There have been complications, however,"

"Oh?" I asked, it turns out my fears were well founded, Operator Vizen'ror was indeed asking me to do more than we had initially agreed upon, but I'd humor her, this way I could be absolutely sure that I fulfilled my end of the bargain and more in case my 'old friend' happened to contact me again and ask me for yet another favor, I'd help her out with squashing this Colonel Ko'venz'tai issue once and for all, after that, given all that I've done for over those damn sea floor maps on Manaan, I better be free from her grasp, if not, well...I'll weigh up Vizen'ror's power against mine and then I'll decide whether or not I have the ability to break free of Vizen'ror by force, but right now, I'll humor her and finish this job.

"Yes, two starships belonging to Ko'venz'tai were intercepted in Chiss Space, they were heading back to Hoth after a skirmish against another one of his rivals, we managed to destroy one but the other escaped, they're heading for Hoth, they're heading right to you, deal with them - but be careful, when Ko'venz'tai went up against this particular rival, no one else lived to tell the tale, the forces on that ship are the deadliest that The Colonel had to offer, set a trap for them to walk into and spring it, wipe out the last of his forces, then you'll be rewarded." Vizen'ror ordered.

"Understood," I replied and I hung up, Operator Vizen'ror and Ty'rahl'ee faded away after giving us the last part of our mission - Ko'venz'tai's most elite forces being off world did explain why The Colonel was relatively unprotected - but I had to deal with these stragglers now, at least half of them were gone now, given that Vizen'ror people shot the other one down - though one has to wonder why the same people who intercepted and fought these Chiss vessels couldn't be the ones that cleared out this stronghold, but whatever, my mission here was almost done. I walked into the command center to open the two hanger doors - everything had to look normal for the trap to work after all - meanwhile, Lieutenant Warres and Pernox went to the armory to browse and see if there was anything in there that they could utilize in our coming ambush - all the while I was rather unsettled by the fact that we had to remain in the very same stronghold that we had just filled with corpses, I guess that I'd stay in here in the actual command center for as long as I could, away from those dead bodies in the hanger and out by the holoprojector, however, the realization that there's corpses and our speeders in the hanger that our enemy could land in came to me - we had to clean up both of the hangers because I didn't know which one they would land in, and while we were at it, we might as well remove Colonel Ko'venz'tai and his bodyguard's bodies from the command center, we could dispose of all of them outside in the snow while the speeder bikes could be arranged more professionally so that they looked like they belonged here, it seems Lieutenant Warres, Pernox, and I had more work to do than we were expecting after all.

* * *

We cleaned up the base and rearranged the speeders, everything in both hangers looked completely normal and the three of us were just waiting in the command center for the ship to trip the radar, then at that point we'd prepare in the central corridor for an ambush, tripping it once all of The Chiss soldiers had disembarked their vessel - we'd spring the trap the moment that we were sure that they wouldn't be able to quickly escape - interesting that we ended up in the exact same situation that Colonel Ko'venz'tai and his forces were in when they ambushed us, however, I had a feeling that we would be able to survive the exchange unlike our earlier opponents. Now that the stronghold was clean and peaceful, the place was growing on me, the living quarters upstairs were spacious, I had already uploaded the data from my mobile holoprojector onto the network here, even the smaller of the two hangers was more than big enough to hold _The Black Shadow_ and the crew quarters had way more than enough space for just Lieutenant Warres and Pernox - though like I was thinking about before this mission on Hoth, my time with Shallev and Pernox made me want to build up a vast network of companions, trustworthy and loyal friends that would always have my back in the field, perhaps I could even eventually get my very own Sith apprentice - essentially, my point is that this base seems like a very useful place and it's not like anyone else is using it at the moment, therefore, I'm certain that I could convince Operator Vizen'ror to let me keep this place...did I even need to do that? I'm a Sith, surely I could just claim this place for myself, I very much doubt that The Operator would start a feud with a potentially useful future asset such as a Sith over a stronghold belonging to a deceased political rival, though that situation will resolve itself after we deal with the last remaining stragglers of Ko'venz'tai's failed coup once they arrive back at their base suspecting to be greeted by their comrades only to be ambushed by Shallev, Pernox, and I.

Indeed it didn't take very long for the ship to trip our radar, it was a larger vessel than _The Black Shadow_ , though still in a similar class - it was by no means a capital ship but it was still large enough that I was confident that it was going to dock in the larger hanger, additionally, the direction of approach definitely seemed to confirm that - therefore, the three of us sprang into action, preparing for an ambush - Lieutenant Warres had his long, scoped twin blaster primed and ready, Pernox was just waiting to disguise herself with her stealth generator and no doubt bloody both ends of her double-bladed vibrosword, and I was more than ready to use The Force to electrocute these last few stragglers, or I could whip out my purple lightsaber in case things got a little too close for comfort - the stage was set to catch the enemy off guard and we had all the resources we needed and then some to execute our mission _and_ the enemy.

A large and elegant white starship soon arrived, just like a Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor, this ship had a deeply set cockpit with a circular window, it was well defended at the expense of visibility - though computers and cameras made up for any of those deficiencies - the ship was both wide, low, and long, with an overall shell profile when viewed from above, though that was somewhat distorted by small stabilizer winglets on either side. The hanger was large enough that the ship had more than enough room to rotate one-hundred and eighty degrees to reveal the rear - there were two large and circular engines next to each other in the middle of the rear of the vessel, on either side of those were two symmetrical trapezoidal sections, looking at them from behind, the one on the right was where the entrance ramp lowered from and the one on the left was for a rear gunner, with twin rotating turrets on either side of a glass cockpit area - there were additional guns and missiles built into the front of either side of the cockpit - _The Black Shadow_ was also very well armed for its size, however, The Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor was designed more for speed and maneuverability than sheer firepower, I mean it was literally marketed as an Interceptor, so this white Chiss vessel likely had a similar role as The Fury-Class, however, it was a larger and more heavily armed craft, however, that likely meant that it was a slower and less maneuverable ship, all in all, in terms of personal spacecraft, it seems that this time, The Sith Empire are the more complex and refined ones while The Chiss Ascendency went with a more brutish and direct route.

The ship landed and the entrance ramp on right lowered, the three of us braced ourselves for a battle, we watched and waited for a large number of troops to clear out of the ship, however, instead what we got was that one single assassin droid, a design very similar to HK-57, the three of us all took a deep sigh, it was yet another HK droid that we had to deal with. This one was a little bit different than HK-57, in fact, much like The Chiss ship compared to The Fury-Class, he was a lot bulkier and a lot more brutish, his black frame still had a generally tall and lanky profile, however, he was more armored and more blocky than curvy, additionally, he had a shoulder mounted grenade launcher on his left shoulder - likely because he held his rifle in his right hand and the designer of this droid didn't want to throw off the weight distribution too much - speaking of, rather than a long and elegant sniper rifle like HK-57, this HK droid used a bulky and heavy blaster rifle - in fact, it was more of a machine gun than a rifle - in fact, overall, he seemed more like a front line combatant than as an assassin droid, though I was sure that he was more than capable of using a sniper rifle to deadly effect. The HK unit was alone, I wasn't sure if the second ship was staffed with proper troops or if Ko'venz'tai sent two HK units to do his dirty work, either one would do more than enough to explain why Operator Vizen'ror warned me that there were no survivors from the battle that this HK unit was engaged in, in any case, we had to defeat this droid.

"Statement: I know you're there meatbags, you can come out now." Our ambush plan was spoiled, The HK unit was evidently able to detect us from our hiding place, though he wasn't immediately hostile, so perhaps this particular problem could have an interesting solution - I walked into the hanger and then down the ramp, standing just across from the tall droid, overall he was very similar to HK-57 except he was more bulkier and heavily armored, his design was a bit simpler and blockier, and his voice, was slightly more mechanical and distorted than the standard HK voice that 57 possessed, though the speech pattern was the same and the voice was right about the same "Introduction: My designation is HK-54 Mk.22-G, colloquially known as HK-54, I am a Hunter-Killer assassin droid that has been modified for the sake of _versatility_ , I tend to be more direct and dangerous than my compatriots."

"You work for Colonel Ko'venz'tai, correct?" I asked.

"Response: Correct meatbag, although, the implication here is that my Master has been displaced." The droid was aware that I killed his master, though he didn't seem to be overtly concerned about it, I suppose that he'll only be loyal while his master is alive.

"My understanding is that you and more of Ko'venz'tai's forces were able to eliminate one of his rival entirely before being intercepted on the way back?" I asked, I wanted to know exactly what happened and exactly how dangerous the droid I'm speaking to is.

"Clarification: The situation was a bit more complicated than that, yes it is true that Colonel Ko'venz'tai deployed a considerable force to eliminate a minor Chiss warlord that he was competing with, I was a part of that force, however, The Chiss meatbags on the ship were reluctant to utilize my various _talents_ , so they activated my sixteen restraining bolts, I was incapable of supporting those meatbags in their struggle, therefore, there were no survivors from Ko'venz'tai's forces, the rival and his forces stole these two ships and wished to use them as a trojan into this base, however, it turns out that sixteen restraining bolts is not enough to hold me back after all. Shortly after we were intercepted, I eliminated the rival and his remaining forces aboard this vessel, I fulfilled my Master's final mission successfully, as I always do." he replied, HK-54 definitely seemed to be an effective assassin droid, I mean he murdered the entire raiding party aboard that vessel while restricted with a massive _sixteen_ restraining bolts - most droids are rendered completely neutralized by a single one, HK-54 couldn't be stopped by sixteen times the amount of restriction, very impressive indeed - assuming that the droid was telling the truth after all, though I wasn't sure if droids could be programmed to outright lie, distort the truth sure, but no droid is programmed with an imagination.

"So what happens now?" I asked, I wanted to know where we were standing after all of this.

"Irrefusable Offer: Colonel Ko'venz'tai was the last owner of this stronghold and of me, perhaps you should be the one to inherit ownership of both. Admission: I find the idea of working for a Sith to be _very_ intriguing." HK-54 offered, apparently I couldn't refuse, though I had to think about it first: I have constantly maintained that I'm open to more and more companions, however, I found it morally questionable to own an assassin droid, after all, I was determined to be on The Light Side of The Force and assassinations certainly didn't seem to be particularly Light Sided, however, there were two reasons why I'd accept HK-54's offer, the first reason was a more personal one: Pernox fanatically worshipped The Sith and was also an assassin, yet I trusted her with my life despite the differences between The Dark and The Light, the second reason, which is more case specific, is that Revan, who after her amnesia acted firmly on The Light Side, was accompanied by the original assassin droid, HK-47, who later accompanied The Exile, and she was so determined to The Light Side that she was responsible for rebuilding The Jedi Order after it was all but destroyed by The Sith Triumvirate shortly after The Jedi Civil War, if those paradigms of The Light were willing to accompany an assassin droid so vicious he's the inspiration for a series of deadly successors, who was I to refuse one of those successors as a companion?

"Very well HK-54, welcome to the team," I smiled and awkwardly shook his metal hand.

"Guarantee: You will not be disappointed Master." he replied and we walked to the command center - while we were heading there, I took a look at the droid's back, along his spine were two rows of eight restraining bolts...if he was this dangerous with all of those, how dangerous would he be without any of those? I was dreading the idea of finding that out...I think that those bolts will stay on for the foreseeable future. The four of us gathered around the central holoprojector and we once again contacted Operator Vizen'ror, hopefully this time, our mission was truly complete.

"Operator Vizen'ror," I greeted, as always as Vizen'ror and Ty'rahl'ee appeared in blue holographic form "There was only one droid aboard the ship, I've convinced him the join my forces, Colonel Ko'venz'tai and all of his forces are dealt with, I'm assuming that we're done now?"

"Yes, yes Gl'ickeneose," she replied, speaking as relaxed and casually as ever "I'm transferring a generous sum of Imperial credits to your account, I'm sure you'll find a use for them sooner or later - by the way, feel free to take the stronghold or the starship for yourself."

"So now I've fulfilled my obligation to you?" I asked, still suspicious as to whether or not I was truly being let loose at this point.

"Of course Gl'ickeneose, if you feel a need to end our relationship here and now, feel free to do so, however, I suggest that you think it over, we could end up being very valuable allies to each other - don't be a stranger." Vizen'ror and Ty'rahl'ee disappeared again, leaving me and my companions alone in our new stronghold with another new ship while we waited for Lord Thassite to contact us about whatever the third planet would be and whatever obstacle we'd inevitably need to circumvent in order to get the third key. I did have to wonder about Vizen'ror's offer though, she was a very powerful person within The Chiss Ascendency, even with those power struggles occurring with The Copero Clans, I'm sure that she could do a lot more for me than just providing sea floor maps, however, the problem with that is that The Operator is also very aware that I could do a lot for her, so if we continued any sort of relationship, I'm sure that she would send me on more and more of these missions across The Galaxy, however, there were two positives that I could already see to such a partnership: one, unlike Lord Thassite, Vizen'ror couldn't replace me so easily, she'll struggle to find another Chiss Sith that's willing to work with her, secondly, not only could she do things for me, she could prove to be a powerful ally and the beginnings of my power base - there was certainly a lot to mull over here.

* * *

Okay this chapter is admittedly twice as long as the others, I don't intend for this to become a regular thing - I realize that the chapters as of late have been steadily increasing in terms of length, but this one is definitely an outlier - I did consider cutting it in half, however I wrote the first half of this chapter with the expectation of it just being the first half of the chapter, so, on its own, I feel like it would be a lackluster chapter and I don't want to give that to you guys, I want this chapter to show that the story is getting better as we go one, I know that act one has been very arc heavy and there admittedly will be two more of those three chapter planetary arcs, however, my ideas for act two and act three will be a lot less rigidly structured and a lot more character driven, just bear with me, I'm doing my best to make the story better and better as we go on, so because of that, as always, I'm asking for your help to make this story as good as it can possibly be, please read, review, and enjoy!

I love you all, peace out!


	16. Enigma of a World: Belsavis

Greetings all, Coimbra_Bertone here with chapter sixteen of TSWTSE, now, last chapter was really long and after that I kinda disappeared for awhile - sorry about that, I kinda lost interest for this story, but we're back now, I'm back now, and hopefully we'll at least be able to get through the rest of act one without any more issues - so just to recap: Gl'ickeneose goes to Hoth to eliminate a political rival of Operator Vizen'ror - in return for Vizen'ror giving her The Chiss sea floor maps way back in chapter eight - Gl'ickeneose reluctantly does so, being rewarded with her own personal stronghold on Hoth, a new ship, and another companion, a modified HK unit with a grenade launcher and a machine gun. I hope you guys enjoyed that, I certainly felt it was more in the vein of the direction I want to take the story in once the whole act one scavenger hunt is over, we'll open up with a description of Gl'ickeneose's new ship - that was supposed to be in the last chapter but I cut it for length, so we'll just use that as a bit of a segway before beginning our next three chapter arc. On that note, sorry again for my hiatus, but please read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XVI.

Enigma of a World: The Glaciers, Jungles, Volcanoes, and Prisons of Belsavis.

* * *

I made arrangements for Lieutenant Warres to retrieve _The Black Shadow_ from the orbital station, meanwhile, I went to the larger hanger to see my other ship, the one that my new companion HK-54 arrived on, a large and heavily armed Chiss Ascendency vessel, however the trade-off of that is that the ship is both slower and less maneuverable than The Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor, still I was interested in learning more, so I walked over to the hanger balcony between the two ramps and looked out at the wide and long starship. It was broadly a shell shape other than the deeply recessed cockpit in the center, the small stabilizer winglets on either side, and the twin trapezoidal sections at the rear - one was a rear turret, the other held the entrance ramp. In terms of visible weapons, in addition to the rear guns, The Chiss vessel had multiple machine guns and missile launchers built into the sides of the shell section next to the deep recess of the cockpit, also, farther outboard, on the edges of the stabilizer winglets were a pair of long and slender laser cannons, all in all this ship had a very sizeable and very diverse array of weapons - being a Sith meant that I was sure that I would get the opportunity to unleash that entire arsenal sooner than later, however, given the nature of The Sith Empire and the cutthroat secrecy of my mission for Lord Thassite, I wasn't sure if this Chiss Ascendency vessel would first see combat against smugglers, The Galactic Republic, or my fellow Sith. In any case, before this ship would ever see combat I wanted to see much more than just the exterior and the visible weapons, I wanted to see the interior and I'm sure that my new found assassin droid companion would show me.

"Hello HK," I greeted the droid as I walked over to him, still wearing my black and purple Sith robes - it seems that I've fallen into the habit of choosing a set of robes based on whatever planet Lord Thassite sent me on and otherwise using this set - the same set as I wore on Manaan - as a sort of default appearance, I suppose there was no problem with that after all, I mean Sith had to keep up appearances and, despite my differing philosophical and political opinions, I was still a Sith apprentice and I needed to look the part and at least somewhat act it - the droid, obviously, didn't wear clothes, just his black armored chassis.

"Greeting: Hello Master, I trust that you and your meatbag servants are finding this base acceptable." needless to say HK-54, despite his deeper and more distorted voice and grenade launcher modification, was still very much an HK unit with all the biases and the speech quirks that came with that particular model line, however, given that I would spend much more time with him than I did with Karvora's assassin droid lieutenant HK-57, I suppose that I might as well needed to get used to all those quirks and idiosyncrasies, and I suppose that applies to all my potential companions, even the ones that may not be omnicidal robots - though given that this was The Sith Empire of all places, I had a feeling that finding further companions that weren't omnicidal may prove to be a challenge - though granted I've had a fair amount of luck with Pernox and Lieutenant Warres thus far. I don't mean to say that the entire population of The Sith Empire is so psychotic and violent, however, enough of the population is that those with actual morals are either powerless to complain or are simply adopting a see-no-evil approach to these realities from the penthouses of their ivory towers in Kaas City, The Imperial capital on Dromund Kaas, a stormy jungle world on the boundaries of known space.

"What is this ship?" I asked, looking at the massive white vessel.

"Explanation: This is an CU-9500X4 Mark II Ascendency-Class Forward Command Destroyer. Elaboration: This vessel is designed to lead an assault during a fleet battle, no more than twice the size of The Republic's Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette yet carrying more weapons than some battleships. Enthusiastic Proclamation: I cannot wait until we get to try these weapons on some miserable meatbags, Master." HK-54 was certainly a bloodthirsty droid, however HK droids are known for being supremely loyal and useful, provided that their Master can survive, which Colonel Ko'venz'tai failed to do so.

"Let's go inside," I said and the droid obediently followed. We walked up the entrance ramp on the right side of the rear of the ship, separated from the rear guns by the rear thrusters. We walked through the white octagonal hallways until we reached the first junction, the hallway continued forward but to the left there was the entrance to the cargo hold - the cargo hold itself had two other entrances, one to a hallway on the other side of the ship and one leading to the engine room in the rear. I returned to the right side hallway and continued on as the hallway angled off to the left at a 45 degree angle, this lead to let another junction, this time I could go left, right or straight. Straight ahead was the cockpit, I entered and saw the various seats as well as the autopilot and navigational computer - the forward view was rather limited due to the cockpit being deeply set within the ship, however, screen on either side of the window showed both the left and the right sides of the exterior with cameras facing both forward and back. The cockpit design is clearly meant to offer maximum protection for the pilot and commander given that, as HK-54 said, this ship is meant to engage in massive fleet battles - The Chiss Ascendency is clearly modernizing and expanding their role in The Galaxy, I suspect that Operator Vizen'ror and others like her are instrumental in this process.

I doubted that assassinating Ko'venz'tai would be the end of my relationship with Operator Vizen'ror - someone like her wouldn't let someone as powerful as a Sith Apprentice slip out of her grasp so easily - who could blame her though, I've already wiped out one of her rivals for her, which I'm sure is more than most of her contacts have been able to accomplish - with the possible exception of her assistant and personal attack dog Ty'rahl'ee - and I'm sure that Vizen'ror is already planning on how I could be used to wipe out even more of her rivals or clear obstacles in my path. I know that as a Sith Apprentice I should be able to refuse and oppose Vizen'ror, however, as powerful as a Sith could be, someone who knows that they can control a Sith must either be stupid or even more powerful, and Vizen'ror certainly isn't stupid, she's brutally calculating and cunning - if HK-54 could feel, I'm sure that Vizen'ror would find a way to make him feel chills. But I could be cunning and calculating too, I killed Colonel Ko'venz'tai and Vizen'ror awarded me with a ship and a stronghold, the implication being that if I continue to help her she will continue to reward me, meanwhile, as I went to more and more of these ancient worlds like Tatooine and Rakata Prime to find the keys to the undersea Vault on Manaan, I would learn more and more about The Force and Lord Thassite would give me more and more resources to carry out her mission throughout The Galaxy, all the while, I was gaining allies and companions such as Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and HK-54. I would serve both of my Masters until one day, the day came where one of them would betray me - whether it was Lord Thassite fearing that I would overthrow her or Operator Vizen'ror tying up loose ends - I would use one Master to deal with the other. Vizen'ror has a lot of power in The Ascendency, but how much of her powerbase is willing to say no to a Sith Lord and thus violate the alliance between The Sith Empire and The Chiss Ascendency? As for Thassite, by the time she feels I'm strong enough to overthrow her, she may be right and with Vizen'ror's help I could easily survive the onslaught of my Master.

I left the cockpit and this time I went to the left side of the junction where I entered a large and open conference room with a large holoprojector - no doubt this room would prove very useful as both a communications room and a war room. I went over to The Holoprojector and programmed in my contact information from my mobile Holoprojector in order to be able to use this place to contact Thassite, Vizen'ror, and others, just like _The Black Shadow_ or my stronghold on Hoth. After that I observed the entrances and exits from this room - forward at the very front of the ship was the gunnery room for those many cannons along the forward curve of the ship. Opposite of that I saw the left side hallway which I noticed earlier while observing the cargo hold. I walked into the left side hallway, which once again was a white octagonal hallway. At the end of the hallway was the rear guns, but while walking down the hallway from the front of the ship towards the rear, before reaching the entrance to the cargo hold on the left I saw a safe. I closed my solid red eyes and left the locks with The Force, gently, I forced the locks open and soon enough the thick armored door of the safe opened, revealing a spacious walk in safe - There was a pile of credits and an elegant blaster pistol inside, but nothing too interesting to me, however, I could fill this safe with some particularly important relics or treasures that I could stumble across during my travels throughout The Galaxy. Going back to the hallway I went to the right side into a room as the roof sloped down above me and the floor sloped upwards because this room was in the part of the ship that joined with the wing and therefore went from one story tall to razor thin, but this room ended long before the blade like wing began. I returned to the hallway and saw the other entrance to the cargo hold and the cockpit before returning all the way to the original junction with the right hallway and the cockpit. This time I went right and entered a large and open common room with a few couches that mirrored the communications room on the opposite end of the ship. There were three rooms that connected to this one. One was another forward gunnery room just like the left side of the ship, opposite of that was the crew quarters with a few beds arranged in two rows against either side - at the rear of the room there were two bathrooms, one for each gender presumably. I turned back and went to the most outboard room which had a sloped roof and floor just like the armory, however, instead of an armory this was a master bedroom with a private bathroom - this would have been The Captain's Quarters, though now I suppose that they were mine.

"HK, what was this ship called?" I asked.

"Admission: I did not care for such matters. Suggestion: I suppose that you can name it whatever you wish now Master. Flippant Mockery: I doubt that the previous owners will care." HK-54 replied. I thought about it, my Fury-Class Imperial Interceptor was called _The Black Shadow_ because it's dark, stealthy, and fitting for a Sith apprentice. _The Black Shadow_ was my Sith side, this white vessel would be my Chiss side. I remember as a child on V'aran'abb, before my parents died and I was forced to live with an unloving aunt who sold me off to The Sith, before that I remember hearing the stories of The Chiss Mages, a powerful order of Force Users that first unified The Chiss before they were overthrown by The Ascendency and their Temple on Copero began a prison and later a tomb before being lost to time. Never again would The Chiss have an order of Force Users. Some say that they were stabbed in the back, others say that they were overthrown after falling to The Dark Side - some even gone so far as to say the last of The Mages were worse than The Sith! Whatever the reality may be, The Chiss Ascendency always tried to censor knowledge of The Chiss Mages, but that only made the people more determined to spread their stories. I shall name this ship _The White Mage_ and it shall serve as my primary mode of transportation from now on.

* * *

"Lord Thassite," I bowed as her holographic form appeared before me from The Holoprojector in my stronghold, a steps behind me just outside of view were Pernox, Lieutenant Warres, and HK-54 - I could set up The Holoprojector to display the entire room, however, there was no reason for my Master to know about my growing group of companions, which she would likely interpret as a growing threat rather than a budding asset.

"Gl'ickeneose," Lord Thassite greeted "Why is your Holo signature coming from Hoth?"

"It is not the role of a Sith to remain passive during free moments, is it?" I asked, doing my best to seem like a typical Sith - I did have a contingency plan to use Operator Vizen'ror against Lord Thassite should she betray me, though that plan depended on Thassite being unaware of Vizen'ror, therefore, I couldn't tell the truth...not that I felt that lying to a Sith was a bad thing - I would try and spin this as something that could benefit both of us rather than something I did in order to fulfill an obligation to Operator Vizen'ror in exchange for a favor way back on Manaan "I have secured myself a base of operations, I'm certain that it will help me fulfill my duties as your obedient and resourceful apprentice."

"I see," The red skinned Twi'Lek with her black tattoos said pensively "Well, at least you won't have to travel far from there, because I have tracked down the next key to Belsavis, a nearby Republic prison world with known Rakata connections, it seems that The Galactic Republic has found it too and Jedi General Hallys has ordered a massive excavation deep within one of the prison complexes in order to breach the chamber that the key is locked in."

"You know of this General Hallys?" I asked.

"General Hallys is a Mirialan Jedi Master who has proven time and time again to be a thorn in my side. I serve The Empire's Sphere of Ancient Knowledge and she leads The Jedi equivalent, naturally, we have stolen many a relics off of each other. If she doesn't already know about the vault on Manaan, she will after she finds this key. Time is of the essence apprentice, you must go to Belsavis and steal the key front right under Hallys' nose - tread lightly Gl'ickeneose, Hallys is far too great a threat for someone like you, yet you are far too useful for me to lose." My Master warned as she disappeared, the race for the keys is intensifying rapidly, Lord Thassite and I already have two of the keys, however, this Jedi General is awfully close to the third, who knows what happened to the fourth key which apparently was on Kashyyyk based on Rakatan connections and the vandalized tree symbol above the fourth hole, though that scratch through it implies that the key was taken away from there. There is also the subject of Karvora, he had the key and he had that Terentatek, he may be a powerful Hutt crime lord, but there is no way he got either of those himself, he likely has some sort of Sith benefactor, and if that benefactor knew about one key, they may well know about the vault as well. Compared to the first two, I'm sure that the last two keys will be much harder to get. I'm dealing with more than a petty crime lord and a bunch of Rakatan tribals now, now I'm going to the most important Republic world in this distant sector of The Galaxy.

* * *

 _The White Mage_ landed at The Imperial Sector IV Command Outpost on Belsavis - during The War The Empire had established a few outposts here on Belsavis because The Sith Empire was supporting prisoner uprisings and rescuing certain imprisoned Imperials and Sith, these renamed as the current truce meant that the status quo was upheld throughout The Galaxy. By stealing the key from out under The Republic's nose, I was well aware that I was violating the truce, however, was The Republic really willing to plunge The Galaxy into war over a key? Much like the last Cold War, the truce would be broken time and time again until The Republic and The Empire were in a de facto state of all out war long before either side officially declared it. This is because The Republic does not want to be the ones to break the peace and The Empire is content with doing more or less the same things we would do during a war during peace, hence, I was actively going against The Republic despite the peace.

I wore a set of black robes with purple trim in the form of the purple outlines of parallelograms lined up top to bottom along my robes, from the hem of my robes along the ground to the top of my hood, additionally, my boots, belt, and gloves were black with purple highlights to match. I was accompanied by Pernox and HK-54g - we were on a planet filled with Republic prison guards and near constant revolts, even if those revolts were no longer officially backed up by The Sith Empire, this was a very dangerous place and I felt that the assassin droid would thrive here, meanwhile, my trusted and stealthy assassin companion would never let me down, so of course I wanted her with me. Lieutenant Warres would guard the ship and prepare us for a rapid extraction should it be necessary. That was certainly a possibility, given that Lord Thassite told me that the key was within one of the prison complexes, which meant that we would likely end up tripping many, many alarms while trying to get to the excavation site and we may face the wrath of The Republic coming down upon us only for Shallev to swoop in and rescue us. I had to be prepared for this sort of outcome, even if we managed to avoid it, we really were in the belly of the beast now, especially given that this General Hallys was behind this, given than that woman seems to scare Lord Thassite herself.

Belsavis was the ultimate example of Rakata engineering, in its natural state, the planet is a ball of ice just like Hoth, however, The Rakata have carved circular prisons the diameter of some small moons into the glaciers, and in these prisons they've created luscious jungles and created volcanoes - and that's just what is on the surface, below the surface there is a massive layer of subterranean prisons. The Republic found this Rakata prison colony and adopted it as their own, expanding the facilities and tapping into the ancient technology, often using Rakata artifacts to experiment on the prisoners. These prisoners included the children of prisoners because Belsavis had been a secret prior to The War and thus The Republic couldn't release the descendants, but now that the world is known and The Imperials are well established here, The Republic's bureaucracy is using the peace to try and untangle the innocent from the guilty, however, progress is slow and The Imperials have their spies here and they are intentionally complicating the matter in order to brew unrest and create even more riots, even though Belsavis has been in a constant state of revolt ever since The War.

Belsavis is also a prime example of The Galactic Republic not being all that much better than The Sith Empire, sure The Republic has the backing of The Jedi Order and is a representative democracy - though The Chancellor can seize emergency powers and temporarily become an absolutist dictator, but doing that tends to result in The Chancellor failing to be reelected - but at the end of the day, The Republic has superweapons, they have assassins, they have spies, and they have a hereditary super prison. Nowadays even The Jedi are effectively a military order, no matter how many times they may insist otherwise. This is not to say that The Sith are in any way good, simply to say that, for all their dogma and propaganda, The Republic isn't much different. The Sith Empire is objectively worse than The Republic, though the margin is smaller than the average citizen of Coruscant believes it is, and The Sith are at very least honest about what they are. I guess that this puts me somewhere in the middle, a Sith by circumstance devoted to The Light Side of The Force trying to make the most of it and serve my Master in the least damaging way possible. I doubted that my methods would ever get me anywhere near The Dark Council nor do I think that many of my allies would be Sith themselves, but I would survive, and possibly even thrive with a stable enough position and plenty of Imperial, Chiss, and miscellaneous allies to ensure that I was too powerful for the other Sith to pick off as weak but too weak to be seen as an existential threat to any particularly strong Sith, I had to ride a delicate balance.

"Query: Master, where shall we begin our mission on this miserable world? HK-54 asked as we walked on the metal platforms planted over the dirt path to act as a road between this Imperial Command Outpost over to the more forward outposts closer to The Republic prisons - The Imperials have used The Peace to entrench themselves on previously disputed worlds, as have The Republic, therefore, when war breaks out once again, the fighting will be an absolute slugfest as neither side is willing to give an inch of ground, losing hundreds of thousands of lives in the process across hundreds of worlds in every corner of The Galaxy. The arms race was already in full swing with The Imperials creating war machines such as the new Empress-Class Super Dreadnought which is even larger and even more heavily armed than the already titanic Harrower-Class Dreadnoughts, The Republic is no doubt modernizing their fleet as well given that their flagships were already completely outclassed by The Harrowers, not to mention The Revanchist fleets and The Eternal Fleet that we've encountered since - though now that we have peace and quiet to digest all that The Sith Empire and The Galactic Republic have encountered during their various alliances during the complete chaos of the last stages of the last war, from the rapid rise of numerous war forged heroes in both The Republic and The Empire to replace the old guard and do what it takes to end the war to the death of The Sith Emperor to the race for superweapons resulting in the destruction of Makeb to The Revanchist conspiracy to the damned chaos of The Eternal Empire, after all of that, there's plenty of new weapons to create and utilize as both sides prepare to once again go to war with each other.

"Well if The Republic is doing a massive mining effort here in Sector IV to find The Belsavis key, I suspect that the easiest way of finding a lead will be to start at their own Command Center." I replied, even if General Hallys is personally in charge of The Republic's search for the key, surely she must be getting supplies and using troops from The Command Center, with this kind of situation, there has to be a paper trail and surely we'll be able to access it from The Republic's main database on Belsavis.

"We are going to go to The Command Center, directly?" Pernox asked, likely concerned over the many potential dangers of a direct assault and the fact that such an action might just be the kind of justification that The Republic needs to break the peace without looking like to aggressor or using something as seemingly trivial as a key as a casus belli, however, Pernox is wrong to think that I intend to commit a full frontal assault, instead, I have two possibly ideas as to how I could do this - one is to simply try and use Mind Tricks to make the guards leave and if that doesn't work, Pernox has her stealth generator and a mere Command Center is easier to infiltrate than The Republic Embassy on a world as delicate and strategically crucial as Manaan, therefore, I won't feel as guilty having my companion helping me out as I would have been on Manaan had I decided not to infiltrate The Embassy myself.

"Yes Pernox, The Republic will take us directly to their database." I said as we entered a room in The Imperial Outpost and found a map of the area, we found that The Command Center was a walled fortress at the crossroads of the four main roads of this particular section of the prison - this Imperial Command Outpost was at the end of one of those four roads up against the towering glaciers. Two of the other roads lead to two wings of The Republic prison and the final road lead to The Republic's landing pads which were also against the glaciers in order to ensure that, if The Command Center was assaulted, The Republic forces could still escape in the opposite direction of The Imperials. Between these roads were all sorts of jungles as well as various forward outposts from both factions dotted throughout The Sector.

We had a map of the area and we returned to _The White Mage_ to get our three Chiss Ascendency speeders before riding all the way to The Republic Command Center, passing a few Imperial checkpoints on the way - The Sith Empire maintained tight control over this road because its the only major path to our Command Outpost and, by extension, our landing pads, therefore, if we lost this road, we more or less most this whole sector - now, I'm just here for The Belsavis key and I'm working without a contact on this planet so I don't know how significant this particular sector is going to be to the war effort, but I would imagine that there are at least some prisoners here who The Sith Empire would want to get their hands on before open conflict begins. We slowed down and eventually stopped so we could reach the gates of The Republic Command Center on foot, however, as we were getting off of our speeder bikes, I saw a Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette taking off from The Republic landing pads before flying over us and departing this world. I knew that The Corellian Defender-Class Light Corvette is used by Jedi for transport, I don't know if it was The Force or if it was my own intuition, but I knew that it was General Hallys leaving Belsavis. I needed to enter The Command Center now to find out whether this was a stroke of good luck or if I'm too late and Hallys already has the key. Pernox, HK-54g, and I walked slowly but deliberately to The Republic outpost as several heavily armed Republic troopers gathered around the gate and opened it, but not to let me in, instead, so they could form a much more formidable barrier than any gate could prove to be. I was careful to ensure that all my actions were clear and deliberate, never letting my hand go too close to my Lightsaber in what will definitely be seen as a hostile action, Pernox was smart enough to do the same, and somehow, HK thankfully decided to humor me and show restraint - though I was still glad that he was here, if my mind trick plan failed, these troopers may not give us a change to try our stealthy plan B.

"You shall escort us into The Command Center," I waved my hand and used The Force to make the troopers obey, I waited a brief yet painfully eternal moment after I spoke for the troopers reaction.

"We shall escort you into The Command Center," they repeated in unison before escorting us inside, all of these troopers around us meant that the other Republic staff within this Command Center assumed that we were prisoners rather than a hostile force about to delve into their most important computer in this entire sector, if not this whole planet given that this was our gateway to that Rakatan supercomputer waiting for us deep underwater on Manaan. We walked up the ramp into The Command Center and the mind-controlled troopers took us into the computer room: we were the only ones inside, perfect.

"Leave us," I ordered and the troopers obeyed, leaving us within The Command Center to find the information we needed. I accessed the computer and, before doing anything else, I checked the security footage to first get an idea of how much time we have and, second, to see if I could figure out why General Hallys has left Belsavis - I needed to know whether or not there was any reason to remain on this planet, because if the key is gone, I need to intercept Hallys before she can reach The Core Worlds.

"General Hallys," two female holograms were projected in the room, one was a Mirialan standing in dark brown robes with a double-bladed lightsaber on her hip: General Hallys, the other was a Miraluka in white and brown robes appearing on top of the holoprojector itself - a hologram of a hologram. The Miraluka woman was the on talking "I have urgent news about the keys, I need to speak with you on Tython at once."

"Barsen'thor, I cannot leave Belsavis so close to getting the key, you have to tell me." Hallys retorted.

"Hallys, you and I both know this information is too delicate for holocommunication and once you hear what I've learned, you'll understand why it's best to leave this keys isolated for good." The Barsen'thor retorted.

"Very well," Hallys sighed.

"Do not grumble General, these keys trouble you deeply, The Sith trouble you deeply...we have much to discuss." The Barsen'thor shimmered away and the whole holographic recreation soon followed. The key is still here and it seems that Hallys is being pressured by The Jedi Council to abandon the search for the keys to the vault - understandable, a supercomputer as powerful and Dark as The Codex certainly defies The Jedi Code, but something tells me that this meeting with The Barsen'thor won't change Hallys' position on this anyway and she will remain a major threat as we continue to get ever closer to opening the vault. I downloaded The Republic's maps of Belsavis and found the excavation site deep within the right wing of the prison, apparently an underground cave was discovered during an escape attempt and this cave lead to a massive clearing, somewhere under this clearing, trapped under tons upon tons of rock and rubble lies the key, and according to the information in this computer, a truly massive mining machine is dealing with uncovering it. I still had time to get the key for my Master.

* * *

Alright everyone, I know that it's been months since I uploaded anything new for this story but I was writing a passion project on my fictionpress account - iona Albuquerque - called The Marchioness of Torino, this twenty-five chapter story is now complete. Marchioness is done and now, my plan is to write two stories at once, so today, February 24th, 2019, I am uploading this along with chapter one of my new Middle Ages story, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles over on fictionpress, now, next sunday I will post chapter seventeen of this story and then on March 10th, 2019 I will post chapter two of Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. After that, these two stories will alternate weekly, so The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire will now be uploaded biweekly rather than weekly like it was before the hiatus, hopefully this will let me overcome my writer's fatigue by alternating between two radically different settings - I don't want to disappear for months at a time again, I want to finish this. Once again, sorry about the hiatus and please, read, review, and enjoy!

I love you all, peace out!


	17. Vanquishing The Defenses of Belsavis

it's the second chapter in a row - been awhile since I've been able to say that about TSWTSE. This one is the middle chapter of The Belsavis arc and here we deal with Gl'ickeneose trying to get to the excavation site. Read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XVII.

Vanquishing The Defenses of Belsavis.

* * *

Pernox, HK-54, and I managed to slip out of The Republic Command Center once we knew where the excavation was taking place - deep within the right wing of Sector IV of The Belsavis Penal Colony. General Hallys was off of the planet right now, therefore, I had to strike now because if Lord Thassite had reason to fear this Jedi General, then I certainly didn't stand a chance against her, not now anyway. That's not to say that it would be easy because The Republic has definitely been trying to secure the prison, arming it with turrets, cannons, and more troopers to act as guards in order to get the rioters under control and keep them there, therefore, breaking into the prison wouldn't be as easy as it once could have been. I'd imagine that in addition to the actual difficulty of breaking into the prison, it will be a further level of difficult in order to reach the excavation site itself - General Hallys does not want to lose the key, especially not while she's off world and unable to do anything about it, therefore, I'm certain that I'll be up against Belsavis' finest.

"What's the plan Gl'ickeneose?" Pernox asked as we returned to our speeder bikes. I had to deal with a degree of independence here, Lord Thassite didn't give me a contact to work with and I was just a stupid little girl from V'aran'abb in over her head depended on powers she barely understands how she has them or what exactly she could do other than mind tricks and shooting lightning. I was just now getting into the swing of things within The Sith Empire - thus far the only Imperial world I've come to know is Korriban, I haven't even step foot on our capital planet of Dromund Kaas yet. Manaan is a neutral world that offers concessions to both The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire, Tatooine is a world primarily under the control of The Hutts with a few Republic and Imperial bases scattered throughout the deserts, and the situation on Rakata Prime is similar but with fewer outposts due to how poor and how remote the world is nowadays - though both sides have scavenged and observed many of the wrecked ships - Rakatan or otherwise - hoping to find some sort of lost or rare technology they could reverse engineer or outright incorporate into their war chests. Now I was all alone on Belsavis, a distant and largely hostile world, but The Sith Empire was here and I'm sure that The Imperials could help me somehow, therefore, the three of us would ride to the forwardmost Imperial Outpost relative to the right wing of The Sector IV prison and ask the local garrison for support.

"Well if Lord Thassite isn't going to give me a contact on Belsavis, then I suppose we need to make our own contact." I said as I sat down on my blue and white Chiss Ascendency speeder and rode over to Imperial Outpost Sigma Zeta with my loyal Kaleesh assassin and exceptionally brutal droid companion followed close behind in a triangular formation. Outpost Sigma Zeta was an occupied Republic checkpoint with some mobile barriers, tents, and light turrets set up around it because this Outpost was set up during the closing stages of open conflict in an attempt to isolate The Republic Command Center from the prison, but obviously that plan didn't materialize and this Sector remains divided in two with The Republic possessing a much larger share whilst The Sith maintain a presence solely to avoid losing their foothold in time for when open hostilities inevitably return. The three of us got off of our speeders and walked towards the largest tent in the base which we assumed had to belong to the local commanding officer.

"My Lord," a standard human Imperial officer in his gray uniform and blue and red rectangular Officer's badge greeted as he left the tent "My name is Lieutenant Colonel Phershun Lizzek, what brings you to this humble Outpost?"

"I need to break into The Republic prison," I replied bluntly.

"Sith business I presume?" Lt. Colonel Lizzek sighed, apparently he was used to this sort of phenomenon - I'm sure he's dealt with a Sith or two coming here to break into the prison to either rescue, kill, or perhaps commit both to a fellow Sith imprisoned within this Sector without very much explanation - I wasn't here on a murder mission though the search for the key was supposed to be a secret, therefore, if I had to explain the situation, I'd have to be vague and describe it as merely a Rakatan artifact rather than reveal the fact that it's a vault key - especially given how tight the search is getting as I approach the final two keys, now up against a Jedi General and, I suspect, a Sith Lord as well given The Karvora situation back on Tatooine.

"Indeed Lieutenant Colonel Lizzek," I replied "I need to get into the right wing."

"Alright then," Lizzek took a moment to think about the situation, likely letting a few plans go through his head before opting for the least suicidal option for me and my companions to undertake - or alternatively, the most suicidal option, depending on whether or not Lizzek saw any chance of a Sith dying as beneficial to his career or perhaps out of simple cruelty, it is The Sith Empire after all - however, eventually, the Lieutenant Colonel figured something out "Alright my Lord, each entrance the courtyard surrounding the prison entrance is guarded by a squadron of elite Republic Vanguards, you would need to bring down these groups quietly and in tandem in order to avoid altering the others, after that, raise up the prisoners in an organized revolt. With The Vanguards gone, the remaining guards will be forced to raise the heavy turrets to respond to the protest, once the turrets are raised, take control of them and use them to blow a hole into the prison doors and you'll be inside. Take advantage of the chaos to slip in secretly and keep Republic reinforcements preoccupied with the revolt - if you move fast enough and play your cards right, the prisoners may blame the murderers and turrets on the prisoner uprising."

"Thank you Lieutenant Colonel," I responded, grateful for his quickly thought-up but certainly workable plan, we could definitely put it into action, disposing of The Vanguards with Pernox's stealth and my use of The Force.

"Just one more thing my Lord, there's a delicate operation already in place in the prison, we have a d-" Lizzek was explaining something important to me as a red blaster bolt tore through his chest, HK reached for his rifle, Pernox unsheathed her weapon, and The Outpost sounded its alarm as I turned towards the jungle where the blaster bolt came from, but other than the panicking birds disturbed by the event, there was no trace left of the shooter left. I sighed, I found someone helpful only to see him shot dead within minutes while telling me something that may have proved crucial. This was just my luck.

"Situational Analysis: The shot came from the trees and blasted clean through his chested. The meatbag was dead on impact and the shooter is experienced enough to know to retreat before they could be noticed. Admission: Even I am impressed, I did not expect to meet a worthwhile assassin on this world." HK observed the scene for a few moments later until we finally gave up, realizing that whatever sniper did this covered their tracks more than well enough that trying to deduce where we could find them would prove nothing more than a waste of time, especially given that we were only here to find the third vault key for Lord Thassite and, pragmatically speaking, Lieutenant Colonel Lizzek told me the information pertaining directly to my mission already and the death of an Imperial Officer, even if he had been a helpful one, was more or less inconsequential. The three of us took of, leaving our speeders at The Outpost and continuing on foot to The Republic prison so as to avoid drawing any more attention to us from The Republic Vanguards than necessary.

"Stay back for now HK, Pernox and I will deal with this," I told the assassin droid as the three of us reached the fortress surrounding the entrance to The Republic prison - I would handle The Vanguards on this entrance with The Force whilst Pernox's double-bladed Vibroblade and stealth generator will make short work of The Vanguards at the other entrance into the courtyard.

"Resigned Agreement: Very well Master, but please, remember that I am more than capable of disposing of Republic meatbags." The droid replied, I could tell that he would have sighed if he was able to.

"This requires stealth HK, you have a machine gun and a grenade launcher." I pointed out.

"Interjection: I am certain that I will leave no one behind to claim whether I was being stealthy or not." The droid was certainly sure of himself, but he has a fundamental issue with understanding anything other than senseless slaughter...which I guess means that he'll feel right at home in the service of The Dark Side - though unlike The Sith, who decided to give into The Dark Side because it's easy power, HK is evil because he's programmed to be a bloodthirsty assassin droid, there's no element of choice involved.

Pernox shimmered out of view and HK obeyed and remained on the sidelines of this particular encounter with The Republic, albeit begrudgingly. I figured that the best way to figure out what I need to do with The Force to deal with these particular troopers was to get closer without getting myself killed and then calming them into a false sense of security. I raised my hands well away from my Lightsaber as if to surrender and walked slowly and clearly towards The Republic troopers, making sure that they could see every movement and that nothing was interpreted as a fight - this was a risky strategy as Vanguards in both jungle and arctic camo befitting the chaotic dual nature of Belsavis aimed their heavy rifles and machine guns at me - The Vanguards were fully focused on me and were ready to pull the trigger if necessary, but they wouldn't kill a surrendering Sith in cold blood - not necessarily for any moral reason, the not killing a surrendering enemy on principle is purely a Jedi thing, not a Republic one, however, they didn't shoot at me because these Republic troopers recognized how valuable a Sith prisoner would be and how they would likely be awarded for such a fine catch.

The Vanguards would never get their catch because on my final step towards them I channeled The Force through my leg and ensured that when my foot hit the ground a burst of energy would knock The Republic Troopers off of their feet, before they could recover I finished them off with a burst of Chain Lightning which tore through all of the soldiers at once. I glanced over at the other entrance and saw an invisible blade cut down the last of The Vanguards - Pernox had done her jobs - I gave HK-54g a signal to enter the courtyard and join Pernox and I inside so we could figure out how we could start the uprising and force The Republic to respond with their turrets, turrets powerful enough to blow up the thick metal barrier locking us out of the prison. _The White Mage_ could also blast open the doors easily, however, my ship blowing up the prison entrance is not a particularly good way of maintaining plausible deniability when it comes to maintaining a truce that, in all honesty, neither side really wanted. The Sith Empire wanted war because its in their nature and because fighting The Republic is virtually the only thing that can keep The Sith unified, for short periods of time at least, as for The Republic, well not only are they not all that much different from The Sith, but numerous members of The Galactic Senate are members of, or affiliated with The Republic's biggest producers of weapons, warships, vehicles, and all sorts of war supplies, therefore, a certain percentage of The Republic's governing body supports war purely for individual economic gain, others have a personal stake in fighting The Sith, particularly descendants of those who perished in The Sacking of Coruscant two wars ago, these war hawks are another group, and then there's those who will accept a war provided there's sufficient reason to blame The Sith Empire for the resulting war, therefore, a majority of The Galactic Senate is willing to go to war at virtually the drop of a hat, all of this means that peace between The Republic and The Sith Empire is fundamentally impossible, even if the peace loving Jedi Order believes The Republic to be a force of true good.

"Alright," I began as Pernox and HK gathered near me in the corner of the courtyard, the prisoners here haven't noticed that The Vanguards have gone down yet, either that or they are too apathetic to care given how often revolts are smashed and the brutal treatment of prisoners once The Republic regains control of the situation, always hoping that they could make an example of the rioters once and for all, though it never seemed to work out...almost as if a planetary super prison isn't a particularly good idea, especially when those prisoners are anxiously awaiting word from The Galactic Republic as to whether or not the hereditary prisoners will finally be released. I asked my companions "How are we going to start a riot?"

"Eager Suggestion: Master, I will raise these pitiful meatbags to rebellion." HK-54g suggested, I was sure that HK could definitely cause a lot of violence very quickly, but I fear that he may cause too much violence and us breaking into the prison will turn into a bought of needless bloodshed as the whole Sector comes alive with alarms and Republic responses, all thanks to my assassin droid. However, I saw no other option since Pernox is a blatant Sith associate in her Sith inspired robes and her deadly double-bladed Vibroblade, not to mention the fact that she has been seen with me on Manaan, Tatooine, and Rakata Prime, obviously I couldn't do it since a Sith openly soliciting action against The Republic may prove to be a valid justification for war, while I'm sure that The Sith Empire didn't mind, I certainly didn't want to accidently cause a Galactic war, even if such a conflict is inevitable, but HK assassin droids, while rare, were very desirable and thus, when The Republic hears about a black HK droid stirring up trouble in Sector IV of Belsavis, I'm hardly the main suspect, especially given that this is the first world I've journeyed to with HK as my companion.

"Very well," I allowed HK to begin drawing attention to himself - the droid ended up climbing on top of a Republic barricade in the center of the courtyard - the prisoners gathered around him and Pernox and I separated, trying to hide our relatively conspicuous appearances by blending in with the gathering mass. My shorter height made it easier for me than Pernox, but she found a group of tall prisoners to stand between. The two of us were hidden in the crowd and HK was more than ready to raise hell, therefore, we stood here silently and waited for chaos to unfold and for the turrets to be raised, the turrets would then allow us to break into the prison by blasting apart the barrier keeping us out, or at least damaging the door enough that I could use The Force in order to tear open whatever remains of the barrier the rest of the way.

"Opening Statement: Attention meatbags! The Republic have imprisoned you and beaten you down, yet as far as I am concerned, I see that The Vanguards who have oppressed you lie dead at either entrance. You are no longer restrained to this courtyard and this prison!" HK proclaimed.

"Yeah!" The crowd cheered in response, they were rapidly growing restless, at this point HK could stop talking and this crowd would still find a way to turn this into a massive uprising that would rapidly consume the whole Sector, if not the entire planet.

"Provocative Query: Are we going to obey the same government that has imprisoned us for generations?" HK, bloodthirsty as ever, kept prodding the boiling kettle of the growing crowd...hopefully this wouldn't go too far, but I doubted that HK would show any restraint given that HK-54, whether out of delusions of leadership or simply because he knew it would rile the prisoners up has decided to consider himself part of the uprising.

"No!" The crowd chanted, spitting out pure venom and rage to the point where I would sense it all around me - not only was the crowd quite loud to begin with, but that combined with the echoes of rage that I felt within my head because of the raw emotional energy around me meant that this crowd was absolutely deafening, I was having trouble concentrating in these conditions and I was growing quite claustrophobic as the prisoners gathered closer and closer to HK so that they could hear every word that the droid said, trapping me within the crowd in the process.

"Provocative Query: Are we going to let the agents of The Republic escape Belsavis?" HK asked, I knew that HK was going to indirectly cause a lot of pain and suffering, however, I couldn't stop it now because as far as I knew, Lieutenant Colonel Lizzek's plan was the easiest way of getting into the prison without directly incriminating The Sith Empire, and that plan depended on driving The Republic soldiers out and forcing them to activate the cannons so that we could take control of them and use them against the barrier keeping us out of the right wing of the prison.

"No!" the crowd chanted again, HK kept riling up the crowd with these...provocative queries as his odd speech patterns described them. I was distracted however, because I felt a cold metal blaster barrel pressed into the small of my back, I rose my hands well away from my lightsaber in a motion of surrender as I tried to figure out the situation before acting, I wasn't sure if this was an angry prisoner, a Republic guard who identified me as the leader of the group - admittedly, black and purple Sith robes aren't exactly subtle, nor is the black carbon fiber lightsaber with silver accents hanging off of my belt. I tried to slowly turn my head so that I see who was aiming a gun at a Sith apprentice and try and deduce whether they were suicidal, stupid, or a legitimate threat.

"Don't move," a female voice replied in a Republic accent. I knew that I couldn't use my eyes but, fortunately, I had The Force so I closed my eyes and tried to sense the presence behind me - first of all, the woman wasn't Force sensitive, second of all, she had the distinctive silhouette of a Togruta, she was thin and only slightly taller than I if you ignored her horns and tendrils. This Togruta had dark blue skin with the typical white facial patterns of her race and the distinctive white tendrils and horns of her race had a white base with dark red patterns along them. She was dressed in a white Republic SIS uniform with orange trim along with black boots, a black belt with a holster for the blaster pistol pressed into my back and a black longcoat over her torso including a bandolier, on the back of this bandolier hung a blaster sniper rifle - likely the weapon that killed Lieutenant Colonel Lizzek. General Hallys was not here, but it seems that The Republic Strategic Information Service was more than capable enough of being a thorn in my side.

"You're the one who killed Lieutenant Colonel Lizzek I assume?" I asked, stalling for time and hoping that once HK's speech ended I could slip away from her during the resulting chaos and resolve this in my usual way: with Force Lightning.

"Perhaps," she responded, I could tell that she was smirking "You're a Sith here to cause trouble and I already know that, I know that its your assassin droid that's about to cause this riot, and I know about your Kaleesh friend hiding in the other end of the crowd. Is there any reason why I shouldn't blast you right now and be done with it?"

"We both know that if you were going to do that, you would have done it already," I took a gamble and called this agent's bluff, I knew that, just like The Vanguards I electrocuted at the entrance to this courtyard, she couldn't just simply kill a Sith because she knew that a Sith was a much more valuable prize alive, especially for General Hallys given that I possess two of the four keys for the Manaan vault, therefore, if Hallys could have me, then she would have all but one of the keys necessary for opening it, depriving Lord Thassite and I of everything we worked so hard to accomplish, but this was a mere SIS agent rather than a battle hardened Jedi General, surely I could slip out of this situation.

"Are you sure about that?" The Togruta agent asked, evidently enjoying this situation.

"Given that I'm still standing...yes," I replied flippantly "So, why kill The Lieutenant Colonel rather than killing me?"

"Eager Declaration: Then the revolution starts right now!" HK-54 declared and the prisoners began their riot before The Togruta could respond, I rushed forward in between two prisoners and turned myself around, however, when I turned around I saw that The Togruta agent didn't follow, she allowed herself to be dragged off along with a band of prisoners heading towards one of the entrances as Republic riot troopers rushed into the fray. I didn't like this, that SIS agent allowed me to get away far too easily, something was definitely up. I didn't have too much time to ponder on the situation because four of the riot troopers raised the massive turrets, a gunner and a loader operating each of the two cannons. I found Pernox in the chaos and we moved to gain control of the turrets before they could be used against us, meanwhile, HK-54g decided to take full advantage of the situation to tear apart The Republic riot troopers with murderous glee - stealth was officially out of the window so the three of us would need to move quite quickly to get inside the prison and then to get into that massive underground chamber containing the key, then we had to get off of this planet before a formal Republic response could be organized, and we had to do all of this before General Hallys could be informed about the situation and without leaving any concrete evidence of Sith involvement.

The Republic guards opened fire with their blaster rifles but they weren't as well trained or heavily armed a The Vanguards and were mainly here to try and help cover their comrades raising the turrets, but it wouldn't do them any good. I took one out with a quick Lightning Strike, I was about to deal with another when I ducked down to dodge a blaster bolt, I quickly responded with blowing that particular trooper into the wall - I winced as I heard a loud and brutal cracking sound as he spine made impact with the metal wall behind him, it was brutal but I was still in a fight and I couldn't exactly hold back right now. I quickly glanced over to Pernox and saw that she has handling herself just fine - excellent, I could focus on defeating my group of guards. I dispatched another Republic trooper with a burst of Force Lightning and stopped another from growing a thermal detonator at me by paralyzing him by Electrocuting him, I watched and waited for the grenade to explode, killing him and another prison guard who tried to rescue him by grabbing it and throwing it away from them. The last two guards made it to the cannon and they were rotating it towards me, I needed a rapid response thus I let The Lightning gather around my arms, letting The Force flow to my finger tips, gathering power within me before releasing it all as a Force Storm. The gunner was fried in his metal seat and the loader tried to duck and cover underneath the cannon but it didn't do him any good, my Lightning reached him and he has brought down. I turned to the left and watched as Pernox leaped onto the cannon and stabbed the other gunner through her throat with that brutal double-bladed Vibroblade, kicking the female guard off of the gunnery chair and bringing the opposite end of her weapon down onto the loader. We now had both of the cannons under our control, it was time to break into the prison itself.

My cannon was already loaded thanks to The Republic troopers prepping it before rotating it towards me - the troopers I electrocuted were going to shoot to kill, as brutal as it is to fry troopers surrounded by conductive metal or crush their spines against walls, they would do the exact same thing against me if they could, and I haven't come this far just to die. I gingerly lowered the guard off of the cannon - there was no dead to disrespect the dead as far as I'm concerned - before taking the seat and rotating the cannon towards the wall - I saw the riots that HK caused as they fell apart into infighting, which HK, in his typical bloodthirst, was encouraging rather than opposing it, he didn't care about who was hurt by his actions, as long as someone was hurt. HK wouldn't act against me while I'm alive because I'm his "Master" and I suppose that meant that my companions are safe too, but anyone else...I couldn't say. I couldn't dwell on my regret for unleashing HK on Belsavis for too long because I had a mission to do and the timeline was getting tighter and tighter as the race for the keys intensified with General Hallys getting involved, I had no idea when she would be able to return to Belsavis, for all I know she's paranoid enough to return as soon as a klaxon goes off regardless of the fact that she's supposed to meet with The Barsen'thor, so, operating under this stress, I opened fire on the center of the door.

I watched as an explosion tore a hole into the barrier keeping us out of the right wing of the prison. I waited for the smoke to clear before Pernox and I marched over to the now destroyed barrier, grabbing HK-54 along the way, much to his chagrin. I shot right at the middle of the door and hit my mark, I could see right through it now, I could finally see into the prison. Now that the wall was blown through and substantially weaker, I was able to use The Force to pull the wall open, watching the metal around the hole crack, dent, and finally tear apart, splitting the wall in two and allowing me to open it wide. I took a deep breath and stopped for a moment to observe what I had done. I was certainly power, more powerful than I knew, and ripping this wall in two wasn't nearly as exhausting as I thought it would be, yet here I was, looking at the thick metal walls that I bended like warm plastic - I wonder, if I had believed in myself and tried, could I have used The Force to tear apart the barrier without even damaging it beforehand.

The three of us entered the prison, walking through the entrance and then down the ramp which took us deeper underground - this Republic prison reminded me of The Sith Tombs of The Valley of The Dark Lords on Korriban far more than it should have, fittingly enough, both worlds have ancient ties to The Rakata, with The Tomb of Naga Sadow being built around one of The Star Maps that Revan found four centuries prior, one which Tulak Horde had discovered before Naga Sadow's time, The Dashade Khem Val had been imprisoned near Korriban's Star Map. That Dashade along with his companion, the woman who is now Darth Imperius, have also visited Belsavis years ago as well, though Imperius was in a different Sector than I was, but still, if Darth Imperius and her companions were able to survive Belsavis at the beginning of the last war, then surely I could as well as the three of us entered the belly of the best, walking deeper and deeper into the prison despite knowing that General Hallys would never trust a mere barrier to keep her key safe and that there was that Togruta SIS agent who knows that I'm here and probably has a good idea of what I'm trying to do - I suspect that I may need to kill her given that she's the only Republic operative still alive that knows for a fact that a Sith was behind this raid on the prison.

We reached a fork in the road and I checked the copy of the holographic map of The right wing of the prison that I retrieved from The Republic Command Center. I saw that going left would take me deeper underground and would eventually lead me to that deep chasm where I shall find General Hallys' mining operation and then retrieve the third vault key. However, I also saw that going right and going up would take us to General Hallys' office, which had a direct connection to the mainframe of The Republic Command Center and also controlled the security footage of the right wing of the prison - the door was blasted open and torn in half by The Force, however, if we can delete the existing footage and turn off the cameras going forward, then when General Hallys returns, she won't have anything that can definitely prove that a Sith was responsible - obviously The Sith will be the primary suspects, but Belsavis is a very distant world and remains unrepresented in The Galactic Senate, therefore, without definite proof, General Hallys will have nothing to bring before The Senate on Coruscant - I am determined not to be the one to have started the war, but I'm well aware that Lord Thassite doesn't care if my mission depends on direct confrontation with The Republic and sooner rather than later she will send me on a mission to openly and brutally attack The Republic, I know that my journeys throughout The Galaxy will certainly contribute to increasing tensions between The Galactic Republic and The Sith Empire, however, I will ensure that my contributions towards starting the war will be minimal - I suspect that in the coming months or years The Sith and The Republic will begin committing such small, truce breaking events until it finally provokes the opposite side into definitively causing all-out war across The Galaxy, which I will no doubt be involved in.

"We're going to General Hallys' quarters," I told my companions and we went right and upwards to where the absent Jedi General would be operating out of if she was still planet side. We reached the top of the next ramp and were about to continue on when a red transparent laser shield appeared between us and the entrance. HK-54g tried shooting it, though the blaster bolts were just absorbed by it, though the laser wall did not react in anyway that implied it would hurt us if we touched it, instead, it was a seemingly impenetrable laser barrier, a futuristic counterpart to the physical barrier that had kept us outside before we executed Lieutenant Colonel Lizzek's plan and blew it open. HK slowly and carefully touched the laser wall, there was no reaction, as if the wall was physical, HK then tried to punch the wall, forcefully, however, once again, the wall stopped his mechanical fist instantly and showed no signs of weakness. It seems that we won't be able to get into General Hallys' quarters after all.

"Observation: The laser barrier is blocking us." HK, ever the genius, pointed out an absolutely shocking fact. Pernox, HK, and I stood there for a moment considering our next course of action, however, as I was thinking, I decided to try something that seemed like it obviously wouldn't work but I figured that there was no harm in trying anyway. I reached out with my left hand and watched as my fingertips made contact with the red transparent laser barrier, however, unlike HK, the wall did not outright stop my hand, I kept moving my army farther in, feeling the bizarre sensation of moving through the barrier, I stepped forward as well and my foot was able to cross as well. I took a deep breath before plunging outright through the red barrier, emerging entirely unharmed on the other end. I turned around and I watched as Pernox did the same thing and crossed through the barrier as well, and the two of us hoped that HK would finally be able to pass through as well, however, once again, HK was immediately stopped in his tracks as soon as he made contact with the barrier - this particular laser wall wasn't here to stop us from getting here, it was there to stop droids, meanwhile, the next obstacle - the door itself - was likely here to serve as a barrier that would stop the humanoid lifeforms - General Hallys definitely seemed to think that this was enough to keep us out.

I may have been a little too arrogant because as Pernox and I observed the door, we could find no physical way to open it and it certainly seemed far too thick to be able to blow our way into, however, General Hallys was a Jedi and thus she had The Force, therefore, it made sense that her private quarters could only be opened by The Force, so I focused in and felt in for the lock. Soon enough, I found the lock, it was very complex and it required extensive use of The Force to unlock. There were two main rotating elements - one was the full circular element in the center with twelve rectangular locks built in and the second element was a thin partial circle rotating independent that blocked some of the locks from moving up. I tried to lift one of the locks opposite of the partial circle, however, as I lifted one of the locks I realized that another one was going up and this one was blocked by the partial circle - it seemed that the locking elements were geared together in pairs of two. I moved the partial element out of the way and lifted both locks all the way out of the way and into slots beyond the partial circle's radius. One set down, five to go. I continued going through this puzzle piece by piece, rotating both of the circle as needed and raising the locks into the slots until finally, all twelve of the locks were solved and the door opened. This door needed a Force user to open and a patient and intelligent one at that, I could definitely see that nine out of ten Sith would give up out of rage and try in vain to strike this door with their Lightsabers, but I was better than that, therefore, that's why I'm the one walking into General Hallys' office to deal with the prison computers whilst other Sith are nowhere near the trail to the keys.

In addition to the entrance we came in from, there were two other doors in this room, neither of which had appeared on the hologram of the prison complex that I found at The Republic Command Center - it appears that General Hallys is keeping secrets, while she may have left the planet, that doesn't mean that I'm safe in her office - I suspect that while the door that I opened with The Force may be exclusive, these secret doors may provide The Republic's forces with a clear opportunity of ambushing me here and now. I was paranoid now and I knew that the hologram map from The Command Center wasn't necessarily accurate, but I'm in too deep now and I have no choice but to push through. I went over to the computer and turned off the security cameras, erasing the existing footage as well - for all I know, General Hallys has a remote live feed from these cameras, but I've done everything I can from here. I was working on trying to deactivate the droid barrier keeping HK-54 out of this office when I heard the hiss of one of the secret doors opening. Pernox and I turned sharply as we saw that same Togruta agent walk in along with two Republic troopers, the door hissing closed behind us.

"We have you now, Sith," The Togruta smiled before aiming her blaster at me, I was already thinking of how I could use The Force to stop her when she glanced over to the computers, saw that I turned off the cameras, and grinned even more before giving me a wink - she was no Republic agent. I watched as she moved her blaster pistol away from me and shot one of her own troopers in the back.

"What the -" the other trooper turned in shock before The Togruta agent shot him in the neck between his armor plates - she knew all about these Republic troopers on Belsavis, how their armor was arranged, what their weak spots were, and she knew about the secret passages into General Hallys' office, all she needed was for The Jedi General to be off world and for a threat great enough to break into the prison that she could have a justifiable reason for breaking into the office, a reason that I provided. This is why she let me go back in the prison courtyard, this is why she shot Lieutenant Colonel Lizzek - she needed a big target dead in order to get the trust of The Republic but she needed me to get her into the prison, and she feared that if Lizzek had revealed her mission to me, then I, as a typical Sith, would likely trample all over her mission out of resentment - The Sith and Imperial Intelligence haven't gotten along much, The Sith even went so far as dismantling it and replacing it with Sith Intelligence at one point before that whole business with The Eternal Empire, but seeing as Sith Intelligence didn't survive that war, Imperial Intelligence was reluctantly reestablished, resulting in the current tensions. In any case, this whole situation is starting to make sense to me now, and this Togruta agent has outdone herself.

"Hello my Lord," she bowed, now speaking in a clear Imperial accent which I suppose was her true voice all along - more evidence of The Sith Empire growing more and more diverse by necessity even if The Sith, by nature, have always been highly xenophobic, especially The Sith Purebloods who even look down on the humans who make up the vast majority of The Imperial population "My name is Agent Quaya Depha, Imperial Intelligence."

"Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe," I introduced myself as she walked over to the same computer that I was just working on and started doing something, I was curious as to what exactly "What are you doing?"

"Completing my mission." Agent Depha finished what she was doing before turning around to me once again "Imperial Intelligence learned of a captured agent sent to Belsavis who agreed to talk to The Republic, I was sent to assassinate him, but his cell his virtually impenetrable, therefore, I've had to resort to cutting off the ventilation to his cell."

"Dirty business," I replied.

"I agree," she said, somewhat surprisingly "But an alien can't exactly argue with orders from Imperial Intelligence."

"Fair enough," I sighed, knowing The Imperial world about as well as she did.

"So Gl'ickeneose, you helped me with my mission, shall I help you with yours?" she asked, seems there's always allies to be found.

* * *

I love you all, peace out!


	18. Another Key is Uncovered

Hello everyone! We're back with TSWTSE after last week's update of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles over on on my Iona Albuquerque account. Updates will continue being biweekly and alternating for some time but if you guys have any suggestions for different ways that I could deal with uploading these two stories, please let me know. In any case, here we go with the final part of The Belsavis arc of Act One, picking up from where the last chapter left off with Gl'ickeneose and Pernox in the office finally encountering The Togruta agent, Quaya Depha. Please read, review, and enjoy.

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XVIII.

Another Key is Uncovered.

* * *

"Very well Agent Depha," I accepted her offer of working together given that The Imperial Agent who had been posing undercover as a SIS Operative had finally been able to access General Hallys' office under the pretense of stopping me, allowing her to use The Prison's own defenses against an Imperial traitor who was about to reveal the delicate secrets of the recently reformed Imperial Intelligence to The Galactic Republic, naturally, Imperial Intelligence was very much opposed to such a move and sent their undercover operative in to assassinate this would-be informant. Quaya Depha so far seemed to be in a similar position as me, an alien in The Sith Empire trying to make the most of it, she gets blood on her hands because she has to in order to complete her mission - she had to kill Lizzek because she saw me as her best chance of ending The Sith plans and Lizzek was about to reveal the situation to me, preventing the natural reaction that Depha was hoping for, and she killed the informant because that was her mission - as an Imperial Agent, her career and livelihood depended on completing this mission. Depha was no doubt the ideal Agent for this job as the relative rarity of aliens in The Sith Empire meant that she was far from the most expected Imperial spy and she was clearly talented with a sniper rifle as well as very opportunistic - I mean she seized upon this opportunity flawlessly. I would fill her in on the situation only as much as I felt I needed to, given that she was an active Imperial Agent, this was most likely just a temporary partnership, our separate missions would surely take us to separate places once we were done here "We're here to steal the artifact that General Hallys is digging up beneath this prison."

"Alright," she said and we shook hands before turning to the secret door opposite of the one that she entered from "Beyond that door is a secret elevator that will take us to General Hallys' personal tunnel to the clearing where that giant mining machine is working to uncover some sort of old Rakatan artifact. We need it because The Republic troops will be regaining control of the situation outside right about now if they haven't already, and they'll notify General Hallys regardless if they know that you're here or that you're after the artifact - it's standard procedure - she'll no doubt turn around no matter how close she is to Tython, she's grown damn near obsessed over this old thing."

"Understood," I turned around and looked through the open Force door and the droid barrier in between to speak to HK-54g beyond it "Return to the ship HK, at least try to evade The Republic troops peacefully."

"Dejected Statement: Very well Master, but I must say that your mercy is entirely impractical and unnecessary." The droid complained but he seemed like he would at least be obedient, I didn't have the time nor the care to deal with the droid's bloodlust right now, I had to grab the key and escape this planet before the whole of The Republic along with Jedi General Hallys arrives to see what's happened to their Sector IV prison and her precious key. The droid left and he would meet Lieutenant Warres on _The White Mage_ while Pernox, Agent Quaya Depha, and I opened the sector door and entered the elevator in order to take us down to the secret tunnel so we could finally be off of this damned planet.

I watched as the elevator doors sealed and we went down, further and further down, deeper and deeper as the cold of the glacier that the right wing of The Sector IV prison was built into was replaced with the heat of the inside of Belsavis - despite being covered in glaciers, Belsavis was a very geothermally active world with volcanoes and lava flows all over the planet, this warmth was utilized by The Rakata while terraforming this planet, building their jungles filled with exotic plants and animals that can't possibly be native to this planet given that, naturally, it's a slightly more volcanic Hoth, but The Rakata decided to experiment with the planet, seemingly for no reason - to be fair, this was fully in character for them, after all, The Rakata have committed countless experiments on Tatooine, their terraforming process has created the infinitely tall trees on Kashyyyk, and it's possible that their experiments with Kolto on Manaan resulted in the mutation of The Progenitor which The Selkath how worship as a near-mythical God. Belsavis was an experimentation world, a prison world, and home to numerous ancient torture devices, all of which The Republic, the supposed good guys of this war, use on prisons constantly. I'm not here to expose The Republic's wrongdoings or try to do a massive breakout, I'm just here to get the third vault key for my Master Lord Thassite before leaving this planet, perhaps forever, but I was certainly against the idea of a planetary super prison used to torture war criminals and their descendants.

I have to wonder, what were the chances that one of my ancestors could've been imprisoned here? The Republic prison on Belsavis has officially been open for a very short amount of time prior to The Great Galactic War, however, given the amount of infrastructure and the age of some of the descendants of initial prisoners, it's quite clear that the prison has been open for at least half a century or so before the official date, meaning that by now, it's been at least nearly a century of this prison being open. The Chiss Ascendency has been rather isolationist prior to allying The Sith Empire, however, individual Chiss have still left Chiss Space and by far the most likely destination for them would be The Sith Empire. Coming to The Sith Empire means that those theoretical ancestors would no doubt be considered for Imperial Service against The Republic if nothing else, and given the harsh conditions that my ancestors must have been accustomed to on V'aran'abb means that those ancestors would be very likely to pass The Empire's service requirements, all of this means that if my ancestors had, for whatever reason, they decided to immigrate to The Sith Empire, they would likely be used against The Republic, and if they were caught acting in that capacity, they may very well have ended up here. In a not implausible timeline, I could've been born here in the prisons of Belsavis. I don't know what exactly The Republic does to Force sensitive prisoner children, however, given that I'm strong enough to tear open the prison walls despite not having had all that much training and the simple fact that prisoners tend to hold resentment towards their captors, I could very well imagine that being a Force sensitive baby on Belsavis would result in me being executed outright if not used for some sick Rakatan experiment that needs a child - I'm not quite sure which is worse.

Were The Ancient Rakata inherently evil people who happened to use The Force and thus ended up creating The Dark Side of The Force that way or did they keep pushing the envelope with The Force until they unknowingly started using The Dark Side, but their inventions show that they had an incredible grasp of technology and were more than capable of crushing their primitive contemporaries around The Galaxy, perhaps that is why they decided to use humans, Zabraks, Selkath, Wookies, and numerous other races as slaves or fodder for their experiments in their seemingly meaningless pursuit of science for the sake of science. Realistically, there is no reason why anyone should ever invent a device which imprisons someone's mind within an endless white prison, such Mind Prisons have a higher relative abundance than other types of Rakatan artifacts, suggesting that The Rakata built countless numbers of Mind Prisons. Then of course there is The Star Forge whose wreckage I found Inquisitor Quor in back on Rakata Prime, that existed solely to harvest the energy of a sun - the energy that most species need in order to survive - in order to produce nothing but war machines, this is what Darth Revan and Darth Malak used during The Jedi Civil War to turn their Republic splinter forces into a far more powerful army with the largest and most modern warships seen up to that point as well as bolstering their forces with battle droids, and, most menacingly, The Sith used The Star Forge to corrupt captured Jedi and turn them into evil Dark Jedi that they used against The Galactic Republic, thankfully, a reformed Revan destroyed the space station, and if he didn't, I fear that The Sith Empire today would pounce upon the opportunity to produce even more warships, droids, and vehicles than Revan ever hoped to. The Codex supercomputer on Manaan trapped in the vault that my Master Lord Thassite wants to open may be the worst artifact of them all given that Thassite suspects that the supercomputer has the ability to track and find anyone or anything no matter where they are in The Galaxy, once my Master has this, no one will be safe from The Sith Empire, not The Republic, not General Hallys, not me, not even Operator Vizen'ror, I have no choice but to help her, but at what cost?

Pernox, Agent Depha, and I walked down the roughly circular tunnel carved through the earth and supported by durasteel beams, lights planted on every other support on alternating sides lit up the tunnel, thankfully, as even if it is perfectly straight, I wouldn't want to be walking through a dark tunnel, I would've had to rely on the limited purple light of my lightsaber.

"How much further?" Pernox asked, her lanky build and tall height, as well as the large double-bladed Vibroblade on her back, made it rather awkward for her to deal with walking through such a low tunnel - General Hallys is clearly closer to my height than Pernox's and I guess that she is the only one using this secret tunnel under normal circumstances given how relatively low it was - additionally, I suppose that the low height made it easier to build as moving vast amounts of Earth tends to be a complicated process. A very complicated process indeed because as we walked further and further down the tunnel into the clearing, we could hear the sounds of that massive cylindrical mining droid getting louder and louder - the key was going to be unearthed sooner rather than later, and I needed to be sure that I would get my hands on it before General Hallys, not that my side was in anyway morally right, simply because, for better or worse, I am a Sith and I must obey the chain of command lest I feel the wrath of Lord Thassite, or worse, my Master's Masters.

"We're nearly there, get ready, General Hallys isn't going to make it this easy on us." Agent Depha warned as I let my black carbon fiber lightsaber hilt rest in my left hand, deactivated but at the ready, and my right hand stood there empty, always ready to call upon The Force in case of further resistance - truce or not, at this point I'm in so deep that there is no way that Republic troopers won't shoot to kill. The truce was by all means meaningless now, both sides have been more or less fully mobilized for years now, just waiting for a twig to snap in such a way that open warfare would break out, The Galactic Senate is just as bellicose as The Sith Empire and the military industrial complex has massive influence over The Galactic Republic, all that they need is popular support so that they can declare war without fear of such pesky things as democracy or elections.

We finally reached the end of General Hallys' secret tunnel and entered the mining clearing. The three of us stood on a rocky outcrop with a holoprojector and looked out across the clearing. This was a roughly circular chamber lit up by four massive lights planted on the ceiling, I could see the main entrance into this room was off to left and slightly above us. In the center of the room was the mining droid. A cylindrical body the height of this whole room - easily four stories - with a massive red eye worked at clearing more and more raw earth and rock, the cylindrical mining machine had six long arms - four of these arms were massive earth moving claws and the other two held mining lasers which could disintegrate rocks, even now, the droid was working faster and faster, crushing anything between itself and The Rakata artifact - General Hallys wanted that key and she wanted it now - The Jedi General certainly didn't seem like a conventional Jedi, not only is she willing to work with the darkest wing of The Republic here on Belsavis, but despite leaving to meet with The Barsen'thor of The Jedi Order on Tython to discuss the hunt for the keys, she wouldn't let neither morals nor thee chain of command get in her way. In any case, I needed a better view of the clearing in order to see where the key was - I would let the droid uncover it for me if possible, if not, I will do what General Hallys should have done from the beginning and used The Force to lift the debris away and find the key - though to be fair, that may not have been possible beforehand given that the droid has been hard at work reducing what had once been solid rock into debris. I took a step forward to get that better view that I needed.

"Gl'ickeneose, careful!" Pernox cried out, but it was too late, I stepped into the red laser along the ground that I failed to notice, I closed my eyes and winced, expecting a fatal trap, however, rather than a trap, the holoprojector shimmered to life, showing a familiar image of a green skinned Mirialan in dark brown Jedi robes - General Hallys. This was not a trap, but it was certainly just as dangerous.

"General Hallys," I greeted, doing my best impression of a suave and dangerous Sith.

"Sith," she responded, coldly "It seems that you've done well for myself, you passed my defenses, uncovered my secret passage, and you found a spy who could even fool me - and you did it all while I was off planet. With these accomplishments, you must think that you've won, don't you?"

"I'm assuming that's a rhetorical question?" I asked in an unimpressed and flippant voice, that seemed like the thing that a Sith would do in this situation, but I was hardly sure, I was still learning after all and I hardly had the typical Dark Side oriented morals of a Sith.

"You find this funny? That's wonderful, because I have something you won't find very funny Gl'ickeneose," General Hallys smirked and I was admittedly caught off guard, however, I managed to keep up the illusion of a typical Sith - General Hallys knew my name now, but how? Did she have extra secret security in her office that only she could access? Was Agent Depha a double-agent all along? Or has this been a trap all along and Lord Thassite sent me here in order to be executed by Hallys, disposed of due to being a potential threat and far too moral for The Sith? "Yes, that's right, I know exactly who you are Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe, Sith Apprentice of my oldest enemy, Lord Thassite. I know about your Kaleesh attack dog Pernox, skulking in the shadows just outside of range, and I know about Imperial Intelligence's precious little mole Quaya Depha. Your Master is either stupid or delusional to think that my spies wouldn't notice you, I have eyes and ears everywhere, I've been tracking you ever since you arrived in Ahto City on Manaan."

"Yet you can't even be here to stop me from stealing your precious little key." I replied to her with the same cold arrogance that she was using against me, I'm sure that she would come up with an answer to this too, but I couldn't resist twisting the knife a little bit more while I still could - I suppose that, even if I was devoted to The Light Side of The Force, I still have managed to pick up some of The Sith's usual behavior.

"That's cute, I would surrender now if I were you," General Hallys smirked even more, hardly being the typical Jedi, as she spoke the cylindrical mining droid rotated, turning it's massive red circular eye over to us and focusing in, it was ready to kill "This here is The Earth-Shatterer, a custom made mining droid capable of uncovering my key and removing any pests foolish enough to think that they can get in my way. Enjoy your annihilation Gl'ickeneose, I'll be sure to finish you off if you're still squirming by the time I return."

General Hallys' holoprojection shimmered away while The Earth-Shatterer prepared its six arms for combat. I ignited my purple lightsaber and channeled Force Lightning into my right armor, fully ready to respond, Agent Depha readied her bullpup blaster sniper rifle and dropped a device on the ground with caused a red laser barrier to appear in front of her that she could kneel behind. Pernox readied her double-bladed Vibroblade but neither of us were sure what exactly she was going to be able to do with it against such an enemy. What we were sure about is that we had a fight on our hands.

"THREAT ASSESSMENT: THREE IMPERIAL INTRUDERS. PROBABILITY OF INTENT OF ARTIFACT THEFT: 96.7%. PROBABILITY OF THREAT LEGITIMACY: 87.22%. PROBABILITY OF SURVIVAL: ZERO PERCENT!" The Earth-Shatterer responded before swinging one of his claw arms directly at me, I dashed to the right at a speed faster than I thought was possible - perhaps I unconsciously used The Force to bolster my movements - meanwhile, Pernox moved slightly off to the left to ensure she was safe and Agent Depha remained exactly where she was, fully confidant that she was safe in her position behind her cover shield. Quaya aimed at the mining droid's eye and started firing, however, her blaster bolts seemingly dissipated meaninglessly against the glass of the glowing red circular eye. Pernox tried to cut off the droid's claw before he could lift it, however, her double-bladed Vibroblade left nothing but mere scratches on the cylindrical mining machine's robotic wrist. This was a titanic mechanical beast, however, at the end of the day it was merely a droid, and that meant that its electronics could be overloaded. I lifted my right hand and opened up my left hand as much as I could without dropping my lightsaber and I used both of my hands to launch Force Lightning at the central cylinder. Alas, The Lightning did nothing to harm the droid, and as the droid finally managed to lift the arm it attempted to smash us with, I saw that the droid's armor consisted of three layers. The top layer was a thick plate of durasteel which would protect it from blaster fire and blades, the second layer was a sheet of non-conductive material to prevent the droid's inner electronics from being short-circuited, and the final layer was another durasteel plate, only below all that was the droid's electronics and inner skeleton. General Hallys was a very paranoid individual - granted, that paranoia is justified this time - and she knew exactly what the biggest threat to her getting the key was, hence, she had The Earth Shatterer built to be immune to Force Lightning...if only she put in about half as much effort into giving the droid a decent name as she did to making it such a damned obstacle.

I tried again and I grabbed a rock with The Force and tried to fling it at The Earth Shatterer, however, the mining machine flung it way with one of its claw arms before flinging another into the wall to the left, seemingly for no reason - then I realized precisely what was going on, the droid was distracting me - the droid immediately fired its mining laser at me, the beam was getting closer and closer as I tried the only thing that I could think of. I stopped the beam with The Force, however, the droid kept firing, meanwhile that I was forced to hold back more and more pressure, and try as I might the beam was getting closer and closer to me and I was rapidly losing my stamina, if I remained here, I would be disintegrated. I gave out a powerful burst of energy to force the beam a little farther back with a savage cry before leaping out of the way, hearing the sound of the beam literally melting the rock in the stop where I had just been standing.

I got to my feet just in time for one of the droid's four claw hands to hit me in the back and fling me off of the outcrop. I rolled along the rock ground at the bottom of the clearing as my black robes with purple outline trim provided next to nothing in terms of protection from such a blunt injury. I was bruised and battered but I had to get to my feet, I couldn't let my companions down when I brought them into this fight, however, as I was stumbling to my feet, I noticed something interesting about the bottom of the mining droid. The mining droid was built on a pillar stretching from the ceiling to the floor with the rotating cylindrical body built around the pillar, however, the bottom of the pillar had been reinforced by rock rather than metal, and by rotating itself and moving so rigorously while fighting us, the droid had undone the rock around the pillar, exposing the very bottom of the electronics. The whole electronic system of the droid must have been connected so I had to have my chance now, therefore, I unloading Force Lightning into these electronics as much as I could given that I was exhausted and wincing in pain from the impact I just had. My Lightning proved very effective and I watched as the whole droid overloaded and a shower of sparks exploded from the top of the cylinder, finally, the deep circular red eye faded to black. The Earth Shatterer was defeated, now it was time to find the key and use The Force to do what the mining machine had failed to do, I would use The Force to find the third and penultimate Rakatan vault key.

Pernox and Agent Depha made their way down to my position and the three of us walked through the clearing as I got closer and closer to that Dark feeling that I felt on Tatooine and on Rakata Prime, the now almost familiar Darkness of the vault keys, below the last layer of rubble that the mining droid had been working on. I took a breath and closed my eyes, I stuck out my hands in front of me while my lightsaber sat deactivated in its familiar slot on my belt, first I felt the familiar presence of Pernox, she may not have had The Force, but she had a sense of loyalty that transcended both The Dark Side of The Force and The Light side of The Force - she worshipped The Sith not because of their cruelty but because of their strength and because of their surprising tolerance for The Kaleesh despite them being aliens and very alien at that, if for no reason other than to peacefully annex their homeworld of Kalee into The Sith Empire. Next I felt the new yet intriguing presence of Agent Depha, devoid of The Force but aware of it, and she almost seemed able to block her thoughts and her true nature from Force users - a perfect trait for an Imperial Intelligence agent and likely what kept General Hallys from discovering her until now. Then I felt the rocks blocking The Dark presence below. I lifted the rocks, at first, I lifted them one by one but soon enough I was moving the entire body of debris out of my way, clearing the path to the key.

I let the debris drop off to the left and the right, it was out of the way of myself and my companions and, with that done, I hardly cared about some rocks, old bricks, and chunks of old, rusty metal. The debris was cleared and the three of us found a staircase leading downwards in its place. I lead my companions down the worn and dusty brick stairs to the well lit chamber on the bottom, seeing The Rakatan engravings etched in the walls - it reminded me a lot of The Tombs of The Valley of The Dark Lords on Korriban, which makes sense given that The Tomb of Naga Sadow was built around The Rakata structure housing The Korriban Star Map. Pernox, Agent Depha, and I reached the square shaped chamber, I saw the pedestal in the center of the room, holding the key. The chamber was in great condition given the debris above - who knows what the clearing could have been before it collapsed, exposing the raw earth above - it seems that The Rakata engineers were incredibly competent, perhaps even more competent than modern engineers despite the fact that we have access to more advanced metals and materials than they did along with access to many of the lessons they learned long before our time. It occurred to me that this was the first time that I actually found a key in the place that it was stored given that Karvora The Hutt had the first key in his palace - presumably due to the aid of a Sith benefactor - and The Rakata presented me with their key after I crushed the rogue Inquisitor Quor for them, though presumably, that key was stored in a similar chamber, not that I'll ever get the chance to find out. Without further delay, I pulled the key off of the pedestal and left it in my satchel. I had the key, now all I had to do was get off of this planet before the full brunt of General Hallys and The Republic comes down on me.

"Alright, we have the key, let's get out of here." I told my companions before the three of us turned around and climbed back up the stairs, returning to the clearing. I stopped for a moment and used The Force move the rubble and debris back over the stairs to the chamber. There was a certain malicious glee to the thought of General Hallys rushing into this clearing and seeing her droid destroyed but the rubble seemingly untouched, letting her cling onto a false hope that the key was still there, even if she knew that she could no longer sense The Dark presence of the key.

"So this key is your artifact?" Agent Depha asked as we climbed back up to the outcrop and then entered General Hallys' secret tunnel, returning the elevator to take us back to the office - I've traveled this way and I know it well, therefore, I am going this way again than going through the charted part of the prison for the first time, having no idea of what threats I could possibly stumble upon.

"Yes," I answered, being honest without revealing a detail more than I had to.

"What does it open?" she asked, pressing the issue.

"I hate to say this Agent Depha, but it's Sith business," I said reluctantly yet firmly, we've been together for a far too brief time for me to come to trust her, especially given that I know that she is a very capable undercover Agent, I had no idea of why she was asking this - perhaps it was mere curiosity, perhaps it was something far more nefarious, but I had no way of knowing and it seems that once managed to escape The Republic Sector IV Prison Complex and return to Imperial territory, the two of us will be parting our separate ways. We boarded the elevator and that took the three of us back up to General Hallys' office, we passed through the still open door and the droid barrier without issue before continuing on to the exit of the prison, returning to that faithful fork in the road where we decided to go up to the office to begin with, something which saved us quite a bit of time in the long run. As we reached the exit however, we noticed that HK-54g was hiding in cover behind one of the barriers outside while The Republic tightened its perimeter around the courtyard with an alarming amount of troops - the rioters that HK riled up were nowhere to be seen, The Republic must have brutally suppressed the riots and disposed of the corpses already. They had us surrounded, there was no way we were going to be able to leave this courtyard without a fight and I didn't know if we could win this, HK couldn't even find a way out and he's a heavily armed assassin droid whose likely been to hell and back on missions for Colonel Ko'venz'tai.

"irritated Complaint: Master, you have told me to be merciful and stealthy while getting out of this prison for reasons that are beyond my understanding, now, I ask you this. Rhetorical Question: Do you see a stealthy way out of this?" HK complained in a harsh whisper as soon as the three of us joined him behind the barrier in the courtyard, now out onto the surface of Belsavis once again. The droid was livid but he understood that we were still in the middle of a potential warzone and thus he had to keep his voice down to avoid starting a fight.

"I understand that HK, but hopefully there is a peaceful way out of this." I said before raising my arms to be as non-threatening as possible and walking out from behind the barrier, hoping that The Republic commander would be foolish enough to grant me an audience out of some trumped up sense of honor, however, I had no luck as a blaster bolt fired at me from across the courtyard, I managed to dodge it but the rest of The Republic troopers quickly joined in. I dived back in behind cover as HK and Agent Depha prepared their weapons while Pernox activated her stealth generator and searched for a safe path out of cover to where she could engage the enemy, but with the volume of fire heading at us, I doubted that it would be possible. I sent an emergency signal to Lieutenant Warres in _The White Mage_ and until he arrived to rescue us, we had no choice but to stand and fight.

I let Force Lightning flow through me before unleashing it as a Force Storm at The Republic troopers over at the main entrance to the courtyard opposite of us, as soon as I was done with that I began launching quick and individual Lightning Strikes at the two side gates - it wasn't the best solution, but I wasn't here to kill as many Republic troopers as I could, I was here to survive until Lieutenant Warres arrived to extract us, therefore, I had to be conservative with The Force so as to not push myself ragged, therefore, I couldn't just launch Force Storms at every cluster of Republic troops, I did one and I might be able to do another if the situation arises, but beyond that, I'm using up more energy than it's worth. HK went as far too the right as cover would allow, intending to pick off The Republic troopers at the right entrance from a distance. Agent Depha was working her sniper rifle as always, the compact bullpup design and the scope offset to the left helped her a lot when lining up shots from behind cover, meanwhile, Pernox was slowly but surely making her way over to The Republic positions at the left entrance under the cover of her stealth generator, clinging to the wall so as to avoid any stray fire. Pernox had the left, HK-54g had the right, meanwhile, Agent Depha and I would handle the central entrance.

"We're outnumbered," Agent Depha pointed out as if it wasn't obvious enough already, though she did pick a great opportunity to point that out as the second wave of Republic reinforcements arrived to bolster the existing troops and fill in the gaps we've worked so hard to create. I had to try something else, I used The Force to feel out for the shells within the cannons Pernox and I used to blow a hole into the wall blocking the prison entrance - Republic troopers were manning those cannons but didn't want to use them as an accurate shot would hit the barriers we're hiding behind and explode harmless, separated from us by thick durasteel, however, an inaccurate shot could severely damage the entrance to the right wing of The Sector IV prison, and I doubted that either of the cannon operators wanted that particular paperwork headache on their back. I crushed the cannon shells and in the barrels and watched as the explosion set off a chain reaction, blowing up the cannon, the spare ammunition, and anything else in the vicinity that could be blown up - it certainly looked impressive, but as the fire dissipated and the smoke cleared, I saw that the pair of explosive chain reactions ultimately didn't have that much of an effect.

Suddenly, two Republic agents emerged out of nowhere, evidently having had been using stealth generators just like Pernox. I was grappling with one, a Rodian female as she attempted to stab me with her Vibroknife. I squeezed the wristed holding her knife with all my might, letting The Force bolster my strength more and more until I heard a sickening crack from her wrist and a cry of pain from her mouth, I shoved her away from me while her knife clamored down to the ground before finishing her off with two hands worth of Force Lightning. I turned my attention to Agent Depha who was struggling on the ground against the other Republic agent that had her pinned, however, I used The Force to pop the agent to his feet by forcing before cutting him down with my purple lightsaber. We were safe from this particular threat. While Quaya was getting up off of the ground, I turned over to my left to make sure that Pernox hadn't been compromised while sneaking towards the left entrance, but she was still taking her measured paces towards the enemy, safe and sound. I was just thinking about how I needed to learn how to stay in tune with The Force while focused on fighting, I should've been able to sense that ambush long before it could happen, however, while I was chastising myself, I heard a blaster shot erupt from somewhere in The Republic line, a yell, and a thud. I quickly turned back to see that Agent Depha ended up outside of cover in her struggle against the male agent and while she was getting up, a Republic trooper shot her through the chest, seemingly killing her.

In a panic I grabbed her by the feet and pulled her back behind cover, gingerly turning her around so that she was on her back, but I could see the cauterized wound from the blaster bolt literally left a hole in the lower left of her torso. I knew that I could try and heal her with The Force but I've never tried to do such a thing before on such a large wound, nor did I want to leave us defenseless for any amount of time...but what choice did I have? I wouldn't be able to survive in this position on my own anyway and Agent Depha has been nothing but helpful this whole time I've worked with her, I can't just let her die without at leasing trying to do something about it. I delicately hovered my hands just over the wound - careful not to touch the raw and cauterized flesh just below, even if I could feel the heat radiating off of the injury anyway. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before focusing every fiber of my being on healing, letting the soothing energy flow into my finger tips before behind transferred to me. I could feel the cauterized flesh falling off dead as fresh dark blue flesh was created in its flesh, filling in the wound as fibers of skin came together like a spider's web. I fixed her up until I opened my eyes and there wasn't even a scratch left, just a patch of blue skin a few shades darker than mine exposed by a hole in her clothing created by the blaster bolt. I heard Agent Depha groaning back to life as I turned around quickly and prepared to confront whatever presence was hovering behind me when I realized that it was only Pernox.

"I tried to slaughter them Gl'ickeneose, but there were just too many, they would've killed me." Pernox admitted as I properly came to my feet and looked out at the courtyard and, for the first time on Belsavis, I legitimately felt fear. Four Republic gunships were hovering just outside of the fortress, dropping off more troops and aiming their guns at our positions, meanwhile, The Republic troopers from the opposite entrance were beginning to march towards us, lead by a squadron of Republic Commandos armed with massive assault cannons carried low like chainsaws and no less capable of cutting down trees, though with blaster fire rather than blades, and that's just the rapid fire configuration, other assault cannons deal explosive fire instead, I'm sure that this Commando squadron is more than capable of dishing out both. And everywhere that I looked, I could see nothing but more and more Republic troopers coming at us from every which way...we were completing surrounded. HK was still trying to put up the good fight somewhere off to the right, but he too would get overwhelmed sooner rather than later. General Hallys wasn't going to let herself being off world stop her from defeating us, she wouldn't let the loss of her mining droid keep her from getting her key, and she was not going to let herself be outsmarted by an Imperial undercover agent like Quaya Depha.

"Irritated Question: Master, where is Warres? Strategic Summary: We will be completely overwhelmed within five minutes at best. Petulant Demand: We need to get out of here right now!" HK complained as advancing Republic troopers on the right forced him too to retreat to our final position here against the entrance to the prison...would we try and go inside the prison and fight them in there? No, that would just let them trap us inside, we can't retreat any further from here, we must stand our ground until Shallev arrives with _The White Mage_.

Suddenly missiles ripped through the air and made impact with the four Republic gunships, they all blew up and came crashing down to somewhere in the jungles below and outside of the prison. The source of these missiles was soon revealed as _The White Mage_ triumphantly flew into our sight lines, dropping canisters into the masses of Republic troopers. These canisters opened on impact and filled the courtyard with smoke as Shallev brought the ship down to a low hover and opened the rear ramp, HK boarded first and aimed his machine gun out to cover us from any potential threat from behind while I helped the still disoriented Agent Depha to her feet and we boarded the ship just as Republic troopers started figuring out where the ship was despite the smoke and began riddling my vessel with small arms fire. Pernox entered just behind and pressed the button to close the rear ramp, I made my way over to the open area in the right of the ship just outside of the quarters where I gently helped Quaya sit down on one of the central couches before getting to the cockpit to join Shallev. Pernox and HK both found a way to brace themselves, expecting a bumpy ride just as much as I was.

As soon as I sat down in the cockpit Lieutenant Warres launched us off to hyperspace despite being so near to the surface - this Chiss vessel was more than powerful enough of handling such a maneuver, but it was still dangerous and not recommended. I remember seeing a red ship in the periphery of my vision for a split second before the ship jumped to lightspeed - we had only just gotten off the planet in time to avoid confronting General Hallys. This was a mess. There was a massive incident on Belsavis and despite my best efforts, General Hallys knew that I was reasonable - all in all, there was more than enough information in The Republic's hands to present a case for war to The Galactic Senate. I didn't know if General Hallys wanted a war though, I think she wants the keys for herself out of some obsession of keeping them out of Sith hands, this wasn't war material for her, this was personal, and I wish that I had clearer answers as to what happens next. I just needed time to think and relax before dealing with whatever backwater death trap of a planet Lord Thassite ordered me to travel to next.

"Lieutenant Warres, please set course for Hoth." I told him.

"Understood Gl'ickeneose," The bearded Lieutenant obeyed and input coordinates, we would return to my new personal compound and figure out what we were going to do from there, meanwhile, I was going to go check up on our Imperial Agent guess and make sure she is okay before asking her where she wants us to drop her off...or perhaps she'll decide that she wants to join my ever growing party...I wouldn't mind that, she was certainly competent enough to pull her weight, but ultimately, it was her choice and I just wanted to make sure that such a competent and comparatively moral Imperial Agent was alive and well doing missions that would otherwise be filled by some cruel and immoral Imperial.

"How are you feeling?" I asked Quaya as I lowered down my hood, exposing my short, curly black hair. I took a seat down on the couch opposite of the one where I sat The Agent down, she was sitting down slightly hunched over looking at the hole in her outfit as well as a small electronic which was glowing red, she wasn't crying or anything, but it was clear that she was in a depressed mood.

"That blaster bolt tripped off my transponder...some Republic sniper shot a hole clean through me and for a moment, I was close enough to death to fool even Imperial Intelligence." Agent Depha explained, showing me the transponder - I suppose that it was green under normal circumstances but after that blaster bolt, it turned red, because it thought that she died, I was sure that the purpose was to transmit data to Imperial Intelligence and, when it turned red, that meant that Dromund Kaas was notified of their Agent dying "You saved my life Gl'ickeneose."

"I did my best, I know that I can do a lot with The Force but it's mostly been guesswork and imitation on my end, I haven't really gotten lessons in using The Force since I left The Sith Academy on Korriban." I was frustrated about that too, Lord Thassite was my Master, but she was using me as a grunt rather than treating me as a student, she's sat in her office on Manaan doing research while I'm going up against impossible odds over and over again - Lord Thassite warned me about General Hallys and told me that The General would kill me, rather than trying to explain to me how I could at least survive a confrontation with her...if I hadn't gotten lucky with Hallys being off world, Thassite wouldn't be getting her key right now.

"You did exactly what you should've done and you did it out of the kindness of your own heart...any other Sith would've left me to die. I...I don't know how I can repay you." Quaya stated, thanking my profusely for my efforts.

"Well, that's true." I admitted reluctantly, a dark blue blush coming over my face "So...what do you want us to do with you now?"

"Well," The blue-skinned Togruta with white and burgundy tendrils contemplated before giving a proposal which I admittedly had been expecting "As far as Imperial Intelligence knows, I'm dead, but...I also completed my mission and didn't particularly enjoy working for them. I see that you're starting to assemble a diverse team around yourself, Pernox, your stealthy Assassin, Lieutenant Warres, an Imperial and a gunslinger, and your own HK with an affinity for grenades and rapid fire, if you would have me, I could bring a sniper to the mix."

"I'd be honored to have you." I replied with a smile, I was always happy to build a group of allies around me, that would only make me stronger and my accomplishments greater, additionally, it was a lot easier to cope with travelling from planet to planet doing some dastardly deed for a scheming Sith Lord when accompanied by friends and loved ones.

"Thank you," she smiled in return.

* * *

Alright everyone, we have finished another arc and Gl'ickeneose has gained another companion, next chapter we will begin the final arc of Act One and I will be introducing my very first original planet. Please read, review, and enjoy!

I love you all, peace out!


	19. Resistance is Futile: Vera Khur

Greetings all, CoimbraBertone here and this is the resplendent chapter nineteen of The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire! Two weeks ago we finished The Belsavis arc and introduced a new companion, this week, we will start the final three chapter arc of act one and introduce my very first original planet. I think this arc will be a little bit better than the last few and I intend to tie up a few of the loose ends of the whole act and then, after this arc, we'll finish up this whole act with a big finale before beginning act two which will hopefully be a bit less monotonous. Just to clarify, Agent Depha and General Hallys were always planned characters, the hiatus hasn't really changed my plans for this story - again, sorry about that. Anyway, without further adieu, here is chapter nineteen, please read, review, and enjoy!

The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire.

Act I.

The Forbidden Secrets of The Ancient Race of Builders.

Chapter XIX.

Resistance is Futile: The Sith Kingdom of Vera Khur.

* * *

 _The White Mage_ landed on Hoth, having had returned to our stronghold. Lieutenant Warres, Pernox, HK-54g, Agent Depha, and I climbed down the exit ramp and returned to our new base of operations - I've assembled an increasingly powerful group of companions, first there was Pernox, the deadly and loyal Sith fanatical assassin turned my right hand woman, then we found Lieutenant Warres, an Imperial with a few vices but one who is deadly with a pair of blasters and serves as an excellent pilot as well, then we found HK-54g, deadly and bloodthirsty, but as long as I was alive, his programming forced him to be loyal and prevented him from harming anyone unless I allowed him to, and finally we found Agent Depha, an Imperial double-agent who's legally dead, I want to believe she's trustworthy but she did manage to fool General Hallys, however, the fact that I saved her life will hopefully ensure her loyalty until we build legitimate trust between each other. I have to admit that I wasn't sure how common it was for Sith to have companions, sure everyone has heard of Darth Imperius and her companions, particularly her Dashade bodyguard Khem Val or the former Emperor's Wrath and her contacts in The Imperial military, and of course every Sith eventually gets an apprentice, but I wasn't sure if these well known cases of companions were common or if these cases were well known because of how rare these cases are, but it didn't really matter to me, I was a Light Side Sith which was rare enough as it is, I didn't care if my companions separated me even more from the mold.

"A base on Hoth?" Quaya asked.

"Indeed, you'd be surprised where being a Sith takes you and sometimes, there's interesting things to gain, whether it be a stronghold, a new friend, or a key to a Rakata vault." I explained, so far it's mainly been Rakata vault keys, but who knows what Lord Thassite will have me doing once we've opened the vault and found The Codex, and who knows when Operator Vizen'ror will come calling once again - she claims that my mission to kill Colonel Ko'venz'tai was simply a one time favor in return for those Chiss maps of the surface of Manaan, however, she also made it clear that this was not the end of our relationship, a Sith apprentice was an asset far too important for someone like Vizen'ror to give up so easily, and however, I knew that Vizen'ror didn't have much of a chance of finding another Sith to use as her principal asset, therefore, if Lord Thassite eventually decided that I had outlived my usefulness, I'm sure that Vizen'ror would be more than willing to help me defeat my master, because it seems that The Force is one of the few resources that The Chiss Operator lacks. I wasn't sure if Lord Thassite would be quite as willing to help if the roles were reversed, because The Sith would see such a struggle between myself and Operator Vizen'ror as a weakness and a Sith such as Thassite would be happy to pounce on her apprentice's weakness.

"I've seen worse from Imperial Intelligence, at one point I was operating out of the ruins of a hollowed out statue on Dromund Kaas. I'm sure that this place is better than most bunkers on Hoth anyway, the hanger is certainly well put together." Agent Depha did have a point, this base is heated and the parts without proper walls have carefully packed and well supported snow, there was little chance of the snow caving in over either one of my ships, but that certainly was possible in more cheaply made bases on Hoth, as both The Republic and The Empire have learned the hard way. Imperial Intelligence, especially since it was reestablished, has had to deal with a lack of support from The Sith, and The Sith control virtually all of the resources of The Sith Empire, and those resources which aren't owned by The Sith can and will be seized by The Sith as and when they are needed, therefore, Imperial Intelligence does have to make do with scraps, hence, at one point, Agent Depha needed to operate out of the ruins of a statue on Dromund Kaas and knowing that Dromund Kaas is the capital of The Sith Empire, this was no doubt a statue of a Sith blown up by another Sith.

The five of us left the hanger and entered the stronghold proper, my companions gathered towards the walls behind the pillars of the holoprojector room as I turned it on and called Lord Thassite to inform her that I had The Belsavis key, but she no doubt already has heard about the incident on Belsavis, General Hallys knew that I was responsible, but she was clearly disobeying orders from The Barsen'thor when it came to these keys, so she may keep my involvement as a secret as she moves to deal with myself and Lord Thassite personally. I did not want to be the one to start an open war, however, my conduct on Belsavis certainly didn't help the situation, even if I did my best to delete any trace of proof, it was not enough to keep Hallys away, therefore, I couldn't be sure if it was enough to keep a proper Republic investigation away, but I have no idea, perhaps Lord Thassite will have an answer.

"Apprentice," Lord Thassite greeted "I've heard of your exploits on Belsavis, you best have the key."

"I do Master," I promised as I took out the key and presented it to her, afterwards I tried to ask about what happened with General Hallys and The Republic after I left Belsavis - sure I had my suspicions but I wanted to be sure - however, Lord Thassite interrupted me before I could ask "What happened - "

"Good," she smirked, I tried to appear neutral towards being interrupted as I put the key away "Don't worry your little head about Belsavis, The Republic isn't going to declare war over a key, their pitiful democracy will not support billions of casualties over a mere Rakatan artifact that is powerless on its own, as for General Hallys, she will bark and she is ruthless if she gets the chance to bite, however, The Republic will hold her on a leash until we are at war, she will not be an obstacle until we have The Codex and we are ready to hunt her down."

"So she won't be an issue as we go after the final key?" I asked, Lord Thassite seemed confidant that General Hallys would sit idly by until she has The Codex and we'll be able to fight The Jedi General on our terms, that did not seem like The General Hallys who took mere moments to figure out who I was, who Pernox was, and who Agent Depha was - though Depha did manage to fool her for quite awhile before hand, so perhaps Hallys merely had her office bugged and heard us introduce ourselves to each other - Hallys was resourceful and she was definitely bloodthirsty for a Jedi. I knew that Lord Thassite knew General Hallys for longer than I have, I knew that the red-skinned Twi'Lek Sith and the green-skinned Mirialan Jedi had a long-standing rivalry, but Lord Thassite was clearly underestimating The Jedi, a typical example of Sith arrogance I suppose.

"She would have to be suicidal to go where you're going next." Lord Thassite announced, this wasn't good, because that meant that this world would probably be suicidal for me as well "I have tracked the final key to a world deep within Sith space: Vera Khur, a jungle mining world populated by slaves, however, recently, a Sith Lord named Argthus has seized the world for himself and declared himself King, he intends for his young son to replace him, however, he doesn't know that his apprentice Waza Thyle is about to betray him and take the planet for herself. Argthus has the key, Argthus is harboring Karvora The Hutt - his cartel crumbled after your visit to Tatooine and the local Imperials becoming emboldened - but rumor has it that The Hutt wants to reestablish himself by betraying his former benefactor and stealing another key. Take advantage of this brewing power struggle on Vera Khur and get the final key - once you have it, return to Manaan at once so that we can finally get The Codex."

"Understood Master," I bowed as her shimmering blue holographic form disappeared. My suspicions about Karvora were confirmed, without the stewardship and intimidating power of HK-57, The Hutt's criminal Empire fell apart and he had to flee to his Sith benefactor, King Argthus, the one who provided him with The Terentatek, now, in typical Huttese fashion, he was already planning on how he could reform his criminal Empire. Perhaps it would be for the greater good if I killed him this time, even a crushing defeat won't keep The Hutt from trying to rebuild his crime syndicate, destroying his labs won't keep him from trying to sell Spice all over The Galaxy, and freeing his slaves won't keep him from enslaving others. I doubt that King Argthus or his son will survive long on Vera Khur given the plots against them, but hopefully I could at least save the innocent child - I'm inclined to believe that the slave owning Sith King deserves his fate - as for the apprentice Waza Thyle, well, time will tell if she'll prove friend or foe, but I need to be ready to fight her regardless of what happens, there's no honor among Sith. A succession crisis and a jungle world deep within The Sith Empire, if nothing else, at least I won't have to worry about tripping off a Galactic War this time around, just negotiating my way through a series of treacherous slugs, both literal and figurative, until I can get the last key.

"Karvora The Hutt? We should've finished off that bloody slug when we had the chance." Lieutenant Warres complained, I admit that he has a point, but I couldn't have known that our paths would cross again so soon, especially given that this key that King Argthus has is apparently from Kashyyyk judging by the symbol Lord Thassite and I saw vandalized underwater on Manaan.

"We'll deal with him soon enough," I replied.

"And what of Argthus?" asked Agent Depha, I was going to respond but Pernox interjected.

"It is the way of The Sith that one day the apprentice shall topple the master, Waza Thyle shall topple Argthus and seize the crown, just like Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe shall topple her Master, Lord Thassite." Pernox's Sith fanaticism reared its ugly head again, I didn't want to topple my Master, in fact I was much more worried that my Master would grow paranoid and try to kill me despite my innocence, hence, I was prepared to fight her in that capacity, but I would not be the one to start a fight against her, just like how I don't want to be the one to start a war against The Galactic Republic.

"She has a point Quaya, I doubt Argthus will last long," I admitted "Nor do I think we should bother trying to save him, we'll try and get his son out of there, sure, but other than the kid, the rest of them are typically evil."

"Query: Master, I understand that our interest is the key, why bother with a child?" HK-54g asked, needless to say, the assassin droid with a machine gun and a grenade launcher was somewhat lacking in empathy.

"Because it's the right thing to do HK, the child hasn't done anything." I answered, a bit harshly I do admit, but there was no reason for the kid to suffer through a power struggle simply because his egotistical Sith father decided to declare himself The King of some backwater planet. This child didn't choose to be the son of a Sith King, just like how I didn't choose to become a Sith apprentice, but perhaps at least one of us can escape this life. I suppose that now since I've become a Sith, then The Galaxy doesn't want me to live, my continued existence means that, whether I like it or not, I will have to hurt soldiers of The Galactic Republic, robbing families of their children and spouses, all while perpetuating the system of conquest, slavery, and torture. The moral perspective is that I should probably take my own life, I may want to serve The Light Side of The Force, I may want to sacrifice myself for others, but when the time comes and it's truly my life or someone else's...I don't know what I'll be able to do. I should stop myself from ever harming anyone else, I should ensure that nothing like Belsavis ever happens again, but I'm too scared to actually do it, far too afraid of death to do anything other than self-preservation and a fundamentally unsustainable devotion to The Light Side of The Force...time will tell how long this can truly last, but for now, I'll do one good deed and one bad deed: I'll try and save King Argthus' son, but my real mission is to get the final key from Vera Khur and give an ancient Supercomputer to a Sith Lord.

* * *

I put on a blue set of robes with two black vertical stripes - periodically, short green horizontal lines appeared along the black stripes, perfectly lined up with each other - one on each side of my chest, the gloves, boots, and belt were all black as well with green lights as trim, this matched the green lines on the black stripes along robes. I suppose that it would be more stylish if I had a green lightsaber to match the lights, perhaps a green one with a black core would work even better, but first of all: I had a purple lightsaber and I didn't have the resources to build another or even a different color crystal to switch out with, and second of all: I didn't use my lightsaber very much either, I was more of a Force Lightning user, that was a deadly tool, I've survived thus far using Force Lightning almost exclusively, I certainly looked the part of a Sith Lord and in combat I certainly fought like a Sith, but I still hoped that I could be different. My young face hasn't been scarred by The Dark Side yet, my eyes...well, they're solid red without pupils anyway, so the standard Sith effect of pupils going yellow and eventually red may not affect me anyway, and my hair hasn't turned thin, gray, and falling out, but perhaps using Force Lightning, a power traditionally associated with The Dark Side of The Force, may be enough to corrupt me anyway.

Being a Sith was certainly a stressful lifestyle, but as I left my bedroom on _The White Mage_ and entered the common area at the heart of the right wing of the ship, I saw the people who were keeping me human. Lieutenant Warres was leaned against the wall next to the exit to the hallway, in such a position where he could be with us yet also close to the cockpit in case he needed to take control from the ship's navigational computers, Pernox sat crisscrossed on the floor outside of the crew quarters and meditated - she didn't have The Force so she wasn't reaching out to feel that energy, but she still gets some sort of mental peace and focus out of it, and I'm sure that she knows that through her meditation, she is mimicking The Sith that she seems so fanaticized with. Quaya rested in the couch and preformed some routine cleaning on her blaster sniper rifle, HK sat opposite of her, seemingly interested in her rifle - I'm sure that the assassin droid loved a good gun, after all, he even admitted that Agent Depha deadly if unnecessary assassination of The Lieutenant Colonel on Belsavis was an impressive shot - nevertheless, I was glad that even he was here, despite his cold, calculating, and bloodthirsty nature, it almost seemed endearing, sure we were meatbags, as were our enemies, but it's like he was starting to see us as his meatbags, which is nice. I could see us as a family, a family that could grow to include others, but a family nonetheless, we all had diverse backgrounds but at the end of the day, we're all here together, whether we be Chiss, Kaleesh, human, Togruta, or even droid, we were all here together and the group was built around me, not Lord Thassite, I knew that if it came down to it, they would help me survive in a battle against my master, even if in Pernox's case she wants me to betray Thassite and take her place - though Pernox has been at my side for long enough that I think she sees me as something more than just yet another Sith to worship, she sees me as her Sith, not a conventional Sith, mind you, but her Sith nonetheless, and, traditions aside, the privilege of traveling The Galaxy alongside a Sith is enough for her.

"Hello friends," I greeted, smiling, grateful that they were all here and getting along, it certainly made coping with Lord Thassite's increasingly realistic goal of getting The Codex much easier to cope with.

"Hello Gl'ickeneose, we're almost to Vera Khur." Lieutenant Warres informed me, excellent, I was already ready for ground fall, Lord Thassite certainly made it sound like the chaotic power struggle over the throne to this tin pot Sith Kingdom was imminent, whether King Argthus's apprentice Waza Thyle or his former beneficiary Karvora The Hutt would strike first is unclear, but I'm sure that the succession crisis is a mere few days away at most, because if Lord Thassite knows about it, then surely King Argthus at very least expects something.

"Good," I smiled "Hopefully we can get these damned scavenger hunts over with...though I dread to think of what Lord Thassite has planned for us next - if nothing else, I hope that it's a little less monotonous than this."

* * *

 _The White Mage_ touched down on a landing pad in the main settlement of Vera Khur - a little mining village called Khurakan - the town was mainly populated with Twi'Lek and Zabrak slaves, though most of the housing went to Imperial soldiers loyal to King Argthus. Argthus himself was in the metallic castle built on top of the tallest of the six mountains surrounding the village. Vera Khur was a mountainous world covered in cyan jungle - certainly very alien, yet also beautiful - as well as many, many smaller plants in every color imaginable, purple vines, orange bushes, pink leaves, and yellow grasses, however, the one color I didn't see in plants was the one most common on other worlds - green. That's not to say that there's no green on the world, there's plenty of green - sickly neon green veins of liquid flowed just beneath the surface of this world, scarring the surface of the world with narrow channels devoid of life - presumably, this green liquid, whatever it is, is what the slaves are mining and based on its affect on the plants, this liquid is not supposed to be anywhere near the surface - King Argthus and his cronies are bleeding the world dry. Cyan, a shade of blue, covered this world, the trees cast their black shadows on the green veins - the shades of blue may have been very far apart, but the planet reminded me of my robes, reminding me of how easily I could fall to The Dark Side of The Force and end up a scarred mess full of suffering and exploitation, just like Vera Khur.

I walked down the exit ramp of my ship wearing my blue and black robes with neon green trim with Agent Depha behind me on the left wearing a black longcoat with a high collar at the rear emerging up behind her head crowned with its twin white and burgundy striped horns with their long tendrils, below the longcoat she wore a dark blue bodysuit with a black utility belt around her waist and thigh high black boots covering most of her legs, the rest were covered with the dark blue body suit. Quaya had her bullpup blaster sniper rifle on her back, a Vibroknife on one hip, and a long and elegant blaster pistol on the other hip, she was armed and ready for any threat we encounter while getting the key from Argthus. Pernox was on my right side as per usual, she was wearing a set of black robes with five thin dark blue stripes arranged in two sets on either side of her chest and then going down the bottom of her robes in the typical style of Sith Robes - the three of us were all wearing matching outfits, I suppose that I could point out how cute this was if the circumstances were lighter, but unfortunately, the three of us were on a planet full of slaves wear a lot of people were about to die in a struggle over a meaningless throne.

"Move it!" an Imperial soldier yelled at a Twi'Lek slave as Agent Depha, Pernox, and I wandered through Khurakan into a small marketplace, there were a few vendors but none of them seemed to have anything interesting, we were about to mind our business and leave the marketplace when another Imperial, this time a human officer wearing all his armor except the helmet, exposing his short and graying hair, flanked by seven other soldiers loyal to King Argthus, these soldiers stopped the whole marketplace and cleared a path through the center - looking to the left I saw an aging freighter resting on a landing pad, I turned to the right and saw that the path lead to the mines.

"Sorry my Lord, we need to move The Accelerium." The Imperial officer apologized as a group of slaves were forced to move literal tons of barrels of the green liquid from the mines to the freighter. I reckon that the green liquid is The Accelerium, but what is it for.

"And what is The Accelerium used for?" I asked, not sure if The Imperial would give me a straight answer or not, after all, Argthus, artificial royal title or not, was still a Sith Lord and operated just like the other Sith, therefore, this Imperial Officer may not even know what Argthus does with this material, and if he does know, the punishment for telling me could be fatal, but perhaps there is no punishment and he may be free to tell another Sith about what his liege is up to, after all King Argthus doesn't know that I'm here to steal his key, in fact, Argthus may be happy that I'm here, he may try to use me as a weapon to dispose of his treacherous apprentice and the leach of a slug that is Karvora The Hutt. I am not willing to become a weapon for yet another Master, nor do I particularly care if he lives or dies, technically speaking, all I need to do is get the final key and leave, but I would also like to save Argthus' son and perhaps lead him along on a path to become a good King and I would like to see Karvora finished off once and for all.

"Accelerium is a wonderful chemical, it can accelerate our ships to the point that even our titanic Empress-Class Super Dreadnoughts will move five times faster than The Republic's Valor-Class Cruiser and still significantly faster than any possible replacement based upon our estimations. King Argthus is fully prepared to begin supplying The Sith Empire once they recognize his rule of Vera Khur and name him a Darth." The Imperial Officer seemed eager to explain, it made sense why, he figured that as a Sith I would be eager to get my hands on The Accelerium and perhaps award him with an offer of being reassigned to literally any other planet - it seems that there was a certain segment of The Imperials who were growing increasingly content with all the idiosyncrasies of Sith rule, eager to play Sith off of each other in hopes of eventually getting a more agreeable position: I don't think that I like this group of thinly-veiled sycophants.

"Is that so?" nevertheless, I would play this Imperial Officer like a pro, using him to get exactly what I want "Well it appears that there is something worthwhile on this pitiful rock after all, tell me officer: could I get an audience with King Argthus? This Accelerium has me...intrigued, to say the least."

"Of course my Lord, I can take you to King Argthus as soon as the freighter is loaded." The Imperial Officer promised, perfect, I guess that the wait isn't ideal given that I have no idea when the whole power struggle will go down - I need the power struggle in order to get the key easily, right now, Argthus has the whole planet under his thumb, however, Karvora is no doubt dependent on members of The Royal Guard to carry out his coup, it's entirely possible that Waza Thyle has a similar plan, all of this means that the infighting will reduce security and prevent Argthus or whoever replaces him from being able to respond possibly before I get off the planet - too early and Argthus and his Royal Guard will stop me, too late and the victor will already be consolidating their power and will respond in full force as I try and get off of Vera Khur with the final key - additionally, the power struggle provides me with plausible deniability, which is good because I already have General Hallys after me because of that business on Belsavis and I'm already surviving as an attack dog for both Lord Thassite and Operator Vizen'ror, I hardly need another power hungry figure keeping tabs on me, whether they be friend or foe.

"Very well," I replied nonetheless, The Imperial Officer is just doing his duty and he's been nothing but helpful thus far, even if he doesn't realize what exactly that he's helping me with, besides, I doubt that the power struggle, even if it began right now, would be over by the time I reached The Palace of King Argthus, especially if both Karvora and Waza Thyle are unaware of what the other has planned, because then there would be another power struggle between the two of them. I hope if nothing else the boy is fine by the time that I get there, but I wouldn't put it past a Hutt nor a traditional Sith apprentice to spare a child, especially if that child could grow up to be a threat - possibility of becoming a threat or not, Argthus's son doesn't deserve getting child in all of this nonsense over a fake throne of some mining planet harboring some sort of superweapon fuel near the edges of charted space.

The Imperial Officer took me up to see King Argthus soon enough.

* * *

"My liege," The Officer bowed before King Argthus, a human male with a number of cybernetics, including his right eye, part of the left side of his jaw, and his right arm - peeking out from below the cybernetics, I could see nasty scars, I suspected that this was a combination of both surgical scars and the injuries that caused him to get those cybernetics to begin with - The Cyborg King wore elaborate red robes with gold trim, including a cape, all together I thought it was ridiculous and completely overdone, but I'm not the one pretending to be a King "I bring a guest?"

"Is that so?" Argthus asked, his booming voice was somewhat synthesized and I could see that another cybernetic sitting over a hole in his throat - no doubt this was synthesizing his voice, but was that the main purpose or a side effect? In any case, it was clear that Argthus has survived many, many fights in his time and he's survived it all, not without injury, mind you, but his cybernetics may even make him stronger and faster - though the cybernetics, much like a droid can be overloaded by Force Lightning and then severely weaken him, if not kill him outright given that his cybernetic arm is likely attached to the nerves in the stump in order to retain movement.

"Yes my liege, she is a Sith." The Imperial Officer introduced me before scurrying away from his Master before The Sith King could find some reason to have him executed, however, as a Sith, one fairly proficient with The Force, I would not be so easy for Argthus to execute, therefore, he would entertain my audience and I would use this audience with him to get me close to the key in time for the assassination plot and resulting succession crisis. I kept my hood up and my arms crossed to appear as an arrogant and powerful young Sith with fierce solid red eyes glowing in the shadow of my hood just above my smirking blue lips, all wrapped up in a package of blue, black, and neon green Sith robes with a deadly lightsaber hanging off of my hip with its black carbon fiber hilt with its modest amount of silver trim, its simple yet effective red activation button, and the four carbon fiber prongs crowning the emitter, all of this must have given me a menacing appearance, hopefully just as much as King Argthus's Cyborg Sith King appearance.

"King Argthus," I greeted and introduced myself "My name is Gl'ickeneose V'aran'abbykhe, my Master and I are intrigued by your Accelerium and we would like to see how we could get some for her flagship."

"I made my stance to The Sith Empire very clear." Argthus retorted harshly, he didn't want to fall for any Sith lies and, admittedly, I was here producing Sith lies in order to try and get him to allow me inside his Palace for long enough for me to find where the key is so that I'll be able to grab it when his reign collapses, therefore, I figured that if I pretended to try and organize an Accelerium deal, The Sith King would keep me here while ensuring that such a deal was legitimate, after all, he wouldn't give Accelerium to someone who can't afford it.

"This is not about The Sith Empire, this is about my Master." I replied, alluding to the standard cluster that is Sith politics, who knows, perhaps Lord Thassite has quite a few Sith enemies that she'll track down with The Codex and force me to kill once we have it, I wouldn't know, Lord Thassite only told me that we would eventually use The Codex against General Hallys - I'm sure that's intentional though, Lord Thassite, as a typical Sith, despite her alien background, will only tell me, her apprentice, what she wants me to know and only when she wants me to know it, therefore, I won't be able to unravel my Master's plan and betray her, as Sith Tradition demands, this was a culture of paranoia and betrayal...how could one survive as a Sith? Constantly glancing over your shoulder, just waiting for your student or your teacher to come along and murder you, despite the fact that the student or the teacher should be the one that you trust most, a teacher should teach the student all there is about The Force so that the student can pass that knowledge on. This would never work in The Sith Empire, mercy and cooperation are ideas far too logical for users of The Dark Side of The Force.

"And who is your Master?" The Cyborg King asked, I decided that I would answer truthfully.

"Lord Thassite." I answered, Argthus would no doubt try and contact my Master and Lord Thassite would play along with my story, she had no choice other than to do so, because my Master wanted her key and I needed to be inside The Palace so I could find the key in order to steal it, sure she wouldn't be particularly happy about it, but if she didn't help, then she didn't get her key, and despite all the dogma about weakness being culled away in The Sith Empire, despite the arrogance of Masters who refuse to ever give their apprentices an ounce of aid, Lord Thassite would have to help me, because what The Sith really care about is power, and The Codex provides her power, but in order for her to get to The Codex, she needs the key.

"A mere Lord cannot meet me in person? This is a grave insult!" Argthus yelled out and raised his arm, I didn't know if he was going to use The Force to strike out at me or my companions, but I wasn't going to let Argthus harm either of us, I would drop the façade and force him to tell me where they key is if I needed to, but right now, I just needed to ensure that my friends and I were okay. I responded to Argthus raising with arm with a light shock - so light that I didn't even need to raise my arm, I barely moved my finger, but that was all that was necessary to harm The Cyborg enough to neutralize him. I was growing more and more powerful with The Force, soon enough I'd be able to use The Force while remaining perfectly still, not that I always would, in heated combat it was difficult to focus in enough to use The Force in such an intricate way, here I could because a shock was a simple use of very little power and I was already focused in on Argthus due to our conversation. The King of Vera Khur gave out a vicious scream and fell back in his throne, he wasn't going to fight anymore, he knew that I already knew that I could and would exploit his cybernetics. This embarrassment would no doubt expedite The King's death once news reaches Waza Thyle or Karvora The Hutt...or anyone else who wants to bring down Argthus for that matter.

"I don't want to fight you Argthus." I replied, coldly before threatening him directly, returning to the lie about The Accelerium "But if you test me again, I will. Now, I'm still willing to accept a generous gift of Accelerium, free of charge of course, to myself and my Master, all without any of that pathetic recognition you want, so, when would we be able to negotiate?"

"Fine," The Vestigial King replied "You will remain here in my Palace while I negotiate with your Master, you will remain here and you will remain obedient or I shall call upon my Royal Guard and my apprentice, and believe me, they aren't burdened with my mechanical weakness."

"Very well," I got what I wanted, now I just needed to find where the key is while Lord Thassite played along with King Argthus.

"Vawlraar!" King Argthus called out and a nine foot tall, hideous unkempt Wookie entered, two massive mechanical claws replacing the mangled remains of his hands, sick, bloody and twisted by who knows what, and around his neck, hanging from a chain, was the final key to the vault on Manaan. I saw the key now, one step down, but could I fight both Argthus and this Wookie? Argthus would surely try and find a way to neutralize my Force Lightning and I hated to see what Vawlraar could do with those twin three-pronged claws, additionally, I also wanted to save the son and ensure that Karvora is finished off once and for all. I know that I'm making this more complicated for myself, but I had to do the right thing.

The Wookie growled to his Master, something I couldn't understand, I had no knowledge of The Wookie language...had I known I would've grabbed HK as his type of droids also have protocol droid functionality, as translation serves as an excellent cover for a droid before they can carry out there assassination. Perhaps I could've suspected this, given that this is The Kashyyyk key, albeit a stolen one, but since when does a Sith associate with someone as alien as a Wookie? A Cyborg King, a cybernetically enhanced Wookie, a Hutt, and a Sith apprentice, this Palace is certainly filled with a diverse group of absolutely despicable and villainous selfish bottom dwellers obsessed with power and greed, nothing else.

"Vawlraar shall take you to your rooms, individually, you Sith, shall be last." Argthus revealed and thus Vawlraar took my companions to their rooms, first Agent Quaya Depha, then Pernox, and finally me. I noticed that Argthus didn't know my name yet nor did he care, a Sith Lord shouldn't know another Lord's apprentice by name, as addressing a mere apprentice by name would imply a sense of equality. I was not happy about being separated from my companions but I knew that Pernox and Agent Depha could handle themselves, especially since we didn't have to be here much longer given that we now know where the key is. Argthus confirmed this soon enough when he told me exactly what I needed to know for my plan with his son and with stopping Karvora The Hutt once and for all "Tomorrow, if your Master reveals that you're dealing the truth, we will dine together with my apprentice and my old friend Karvora The Hutt, if all goes well, I shall announce the deal at the end of the dinner, understood?"

"Understood," I agreed, allowing myself to effectively be taken prisoner by Argthus, this dinner would no doubt be the scene of Argthus's assassin, I would save his son at the dinner and see Karvora killed, after that, I would go after Vawlraar and the key. This was Vera Khur, a naturally beautiful world of cyan jungle covered mountains and the deep valleys in between, yet ruined by the scars of The Sith, Twi'Lek and Zabrak slaves worked to death extracting Accelerium, the latest neon green "super-fuel" that The Galactic Republic and Sith Empire intend to use to annihilate each other, all while allowing The Accelerium to bleed this whole planet dry, and at the helm of it was an aging Cyborg King who would be killed in twenty-four hours by either his own apprentice or by a Hutt that he considers an old friend, a Hutt that he entrusted The Tatooine key with, a Hutt that failed him and would soon see him dead. A wonderful place, isn't it?

* * *

Alright everyone, this has been chapter nineteen of The Sorcery Within The Sith Empire and here we started the final arc of the first act, I know that these arcs aren't the best and I'm glad that they're almost over as well, but I hope that this one turns out a little better than the rest. Next week I will post chapter four of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles over on on my Iona Albuquerque account and the week after that, we'll be back here for TSWTSE chapter twenty, chapter twenty-one will two weeks after that will end the Vera Khur arc and then chapter twenty-two will end act one, act two will be shorter but more free form and beyond that, is act three and finally, a one chapter epilogue. I'm excited about the rest of this story and I hope you are too. Please read, review, and, most importantly, enjoy!

I love you all, peace out!


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